The Fortress Monastery

Lets Make a Model: Battlewagons (Part 7)

2010-04-04T22:21:00.002-04:00

Hey all. A minor update here. I thought Id show the parts needed for connecting the Deff rolla on the battlewagon.
Here are the parts. The connector arms are actually two parts glued together. I did not think of showing the parts seperated.

And here it is on the battlewagon. Be sure to dry fit the parts together so you can still the battlewagon down without the deffrolla being too far down. You do not need to glue the actual rolla part to the arms. It adds some length to the model. When you glue it to the battlewagon do it one side at a time and use the rolla part so the arm sits where you want it and it will also hold the arm in place while it dries.

Iron Knight, Silver Skull Test models

2010-03-08T22:43:00.002-05:00

Hey. I did these models as a test of color scheme and to see how different they would look.
This is a Silver Skulls Tactical marine. Its a boltgun metal body with a heavy wash of badab black. The chest eagle and helmet is mithril silver. the Silver Skulls chapter is an old chapter that has been around for a while.

This assault marine is from the Iron Knights Chapter. They are thought to be a Imperial fist successor. This color scheme is black shoulder inset and helmet and a boltgun metal body. The body is not washed at all and the chest eagle is the same color as the body. The Shield on his shoulder is from a Assault Terminator kit. I trimmed the back nob off of it so it sits flush on the shoulder pad trim.

And here are the two marines together. Each has a distinct look and the difference in bases also makes them stand out separately.

Well That is it for now. Until next time.

Lets Make a Model: Battlewagons (Part 6)

2010-03-01T19:51:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone. Its been a while but this next section of the battlewagon is done.

These are the parts used for this section.

Firstly for the front you want to put this part on. It sits inside the two sides so be sure to dry fit. The exhaust on the back is easy enough. When you assemble the exhaust be careful to make sure it lines up with the points to connect with the battlewagon

This part slides onto the front of the battlewagon.

here the top was added. I washed the metal bits with devlan mud and badab black after attaching them to the model. Once the model is fully done i will touch up the paint jobs a bit and weather the model.

Until next time...

Pre-Heresy Deathwing Librarian

2010-02-13T19:19:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone. Recently completed another Crusade era Loyalist Dark Angel Terminator. This one is a Librarian. Now Fluff aside about Librarians in Legions, I wanted to include a full command staff in my collection. I am happy with how he turned out.

I gave him 2 of the DA dreadnought leg plates with the scroll work as it fits the theme.

The head is a Maxmini helmet and the legs are from Microart Studios. I think they work well to make the model stand out.

That's it really for now. Just wanted to share the model as I am happy with its posing and look. Until next time..

Lets Make a Model: Battlewagons (Part 5)

2010-02-06T14:06:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone. This is the next part I did for the battlewagons.

Here are the parts needed all painted up and ready to go.

I started with the front and used plastic glue to glue the sides on. Be sure you dryfit first. The reason I used the plastic glue is because you get a bit more time to move the part around before it fully sets.

The next step was the back side panels. They are asymmetrical just like the front so you cant put the wrong side in the wrong place. However again always dryfit your parts together.

The last step was the back plates as you can see on the left battlewagon. They go a specific way as well. The left back plate is what a exhaust will attach to on the battlewagon.

That's it for this step. They are painted the same way I said in other parts. Again the weathering will happen after the model is fully assembled. Until next time.

Pre-Heresy Deathwing Chaplain

2010-01-24T13:31:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone. Thought I would post this guy up here as I finished him the other day. Basically I decided to relaunch my Deathwing as Pre-Heresy as I do love how the terminators were don in the artwork for it. I do also like the looks of Pre-Heresy Dark Angels even though it is just black. I'm starting from new with new models so the Dark Angels I have already will stay post heresy in there cool green, black and bone colors. The First Model I did for the new Crusade era Deathwing is a chaplain because the model is fantastic.

So there he is. I am happy with how he turned out overall. His Parchment loin cloth thing turned out better then I thought it would. The shoulder pads are Ironclad Dreadnought leg plates. The Crozius arm is a Thunderhammer arm with the hammer head removed and a dark angel bit added to the top. The combi-bolter is from the terminator librarian blister and the arm its attached to is a stormshield arm. Some greenstuff work to make the two mesh was required.

I highlighted the armor with Dark Angels green. I saw this done before and I really liked it so I tried my best with it. I kept the edging/highlighting dark. Also The pictures aren't the best. I am making an effort to clear some space and set up a mini wanna be photo booth for the miniatures. That will take some time though.

Now I know that the model has an imperial eagle on it in the back and I left it. Maybe he was given an honor by the emperor during the crusade? Who knows. Also there are 2 little crux terminatus type crosses on him. As they are not the standard Crux in look I figured these Templar type crosses would be fine to leave. And as for the combi-plasma... well they are the first legion and plasma has been seen in the novels and art work so its not unreasonable.

That is it for this guy. I really like how he looks. Instead of making my own shoulder pads I'm going to go with standard dreadnought leg plates for the rest of the army for the most part. Until next time...

Lets Make a Model: Battlewagons (Part 4)

2010-01-23T12:26:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone. A bit delayed but here is the next part of the Battlewagon build.

Here are the parts for this part of the build. They are painted up but the metal parts are not washed yet. Once attached to the rest of the model I wash the parts.

Here are the metal floor plates attached. These must go on first in order to put the purple parts above on. After it was glued in place I washed the floor plates with devlan mud to match the rest of the model.

And here it is done. I started with the middle part and then glued the sides on. Now There is still some grey showing through and that is alright. This is just a rough base coat to get the majority of the coloring done. As parts of the battlewagon start to become closed off ill add finishing touches to the purple. Also I will be weathering the purple after the battlewagon is fully built.

Until the next one..

Lets Make a Model: Battlewagons (Part 3)

2010-01-03T20:29:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone. This is the next step in the lets make a model battlewagons series. This step starts making the parts come together to look like a vehicle.

These are the parts cut from the sprue. The guide that comes with the kit shows you which parts you need. Clip them from the sprue and dry fit so you know how it goes together.

When you start assembling the parts you will notice that this small part in the picture above goes on the bottom. Be sure you put it in place before attaching both sides to the floorboard type piece. It has a groove in the parts that it snaps into and if both sides are on you may find it wont fit.

This is what the parts look like assembled both top and bottom.

Here it is painted with tires and treads attached. Primed black then a undercoat of tin bitz. Bolt gun metal drybrushed heavily over it and the purple areas were done with lich purple. You may not see it as I only did the purple on a few small areas. Everything was given a wash of devlan mud.

As you can see its starting to look like a vehicle now. Until next time.

Lets Make a Model: Battlewagons (Part 2)

2009-12-28T21:08:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone. Here is the next section of the battlewagon build. We have all the tires and treads painted up.

Above you can see a close up on the tires. The red is drybrushed with boltgun metal to give it a worn metal look.

Here are all the tires and treads. Basically everything is basecoated chaos black. The treads and tire rims are undercoated tin bitz. Then the treads are drybrushed boltgun metal. The Tires have the red parts done first in mechrite red then blood red. Boltgun metal is drybrushed over the red and the rims. The tires are then cleaned up with chaos black.

So that is it. Next will be the chassis part that the tires and treads attach to. Hopefully that will be sooner.

Lets Make a Model: Battlewagons (Part 1)

2009-12-13T15:48:00.004-05:00

So here we begin the Battlewagon build. We start with just the wheels to slowly ease into the build:

There attached to the sprue like this. This is the wheel clipped from the sprue.

One thing to make not of before assembly is the little hole in the wheel. Line up the nub like part on the inside of the wheel with the hold in the edge of the wheel to have the wheel line up flush. This is the same for both style of wheel.

Here are the 4 wheel for one battlewagon built. There are two different styles of wheel each one has the hole and nub connection. Next step is to assemble the track assembly and paint both the tracks and the wheels. Until next time.

Pathfinders and Update

2009-12-13T15:07:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone. I'm still around. Ive decided that I am going to try and dedicate this blog to more then just random posts and paint progress. I started a new Series on my youtube channel called "Lets Make a Model". Basically I take you along for the ride in building models and painting them. The first installment was with Pathfinders and the result is below.

There painted in Farsight enclave color or at least how I would imagine them to look.

So why did I mention the "Lets Make a Model" series? Well that is because for the more "complex" models (Vehicles, Walkers, conversions) I will be supplementing the videos with this blog. Basically this blog will focus on supplementing the lets make a model series and some tutorial type stuff along with the painting progress. As the video series shows the before and after I can show some mid progress here. The next installment is just being started so we shall see how it goes. Until next time.

Iron Hands dreadnought Counts As

2009-10-26T20:36:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone. Its been a while. So I just have a model update and a little bit of explaining. Firstly the Dreadnought itself
Here is a shot of the base. Standing on a enemy rhino door from the emperor's children. Thought the whole fluff between the two during the great crusade would make the choice of fallen enemies fitting. Its supposed to look scorched and "sooty" which is why i applied streaks of heavy black wash to it.

Here is the shot of the back power plant with a mini banner thing.

The claw hand side.

The plasma Cannon side. I know there is some grey on the helmet towards the back. I will have to clean that up. The inside of that area is grey to make the helmet stand out a bit when looked at head on.

And I pinned it so it can torso twist and represent being destroyed and what not.

So onward with explaining myself. This is a counts as Bjorn. Why? Well the Generic marine codex can represent the Iron hands well enough. But the option of a Dreadnought HQ and the ability to attach terminator armored veterans to your squads also really screams Iron Hands. So I decided that I would use the Space Wolves Codex and represent a Iron hands Strike force led by a Dreadnought entombed leader which is very fluffy for them. I will be using what the codex gives me to best represent Iron Hands. So I wont be using Mark of Wulfen or Thunderwolves etc etc. Its using the codex to represent something and not just a generic re-skin of a Space Wolf army. I do feel the Space Wolf Codex does a equally good job of representing Iron Hands as the generic Marine codex does. So I chose Bjorn as a Dreadnought HQ is cool.

One more thing. The Iron Hands have Clans which are roughly the equal of companies. Each clan has a symbol. I chose the one with the wrench in the cog (On the dreadnought). I am not sure however who leads that clan. If anyone knows please let me know and if you can link me to the source if possible that would be great but not necessary at all. Well hope you all enjoyed. Until next time.

Admech counts as Straken

2009-09-26T16:25:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. As i am making an admech army slowly.. I needed a suitable Magos to command it. So I decided to do a counts as commander. I chose Straken mostly because he is cool. So lets see the results:

I used a techpriest model base. I put a big obnoxious gun on the servo arm part. It represent the shotgun although i made it look like a large laser on purpose. The rest is self explanatory. I like him. he is a bit silly but I like him. The camera likes to show the red bleed through the metallic parts.. but that is not the case on the actual model. Oh well... Just a quick painting update. I do enjoy how the model turned out.

All your Base... Space Hulk themed

2009-09-26T15:52:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. Its been a while. I meant to put this up for over a week now.. So here we go finally. I know I did a post about my space hulk bases before but with Space Hulk out and since I am working on more deathwing I figured I would do a all your base segment on making space hulk bases or at least how I do it. Its going to be similar to the older post but with WIP shots.

Alright so firstly you need your bases. Since it is deathwing they are terminator bases. But you could do this with any size base in theory. What I used to get the grate effect was plastic screening for doors. Why the plastic one? Well the metal screen doesnt bend it will just kink. Also the metal one can cut or rip your skin so the plastic one is safer. Anything will work for grating though if you don't have window/door screening you could use stitchery canvas which most art supply places should have. That also works very well. As in the picture lay the screen down and then apply a small amount of pva glue all over the base and push it down onto the screen. Less is more! This is because the glue will bleed through the screen so do this on a glass or glass like surface as they clean easier and you can get the screen off the glued table part easier.

Alright After letting it dry for at least 8 hours or more (I suggest a full day) you are ready to trim them off. The best way to lift the bases is from the screen that way should it be stuck to the table a bit from the glue (and by the way you should periodically lift the screen from the table and clean any glue off the table to be safe). If you grab the bases them selves you could pull them off the screen if not careful. Then with a xacto or hobby knife (a scissor or razor could even work.) cut around the outside of the base to free it from the screen. A cutting mat is preferable. As you can see with the picture above you do not need to make it perfect. Any excess screen can be clipped flush with hobby clippers. Should some screen lift from the base you can make spot repairs with superglue.

Alright after you trim the screen flush with the base its time to add some. Plasticard works great for this. Cut some strips of card longer then the base and glue it to the base. Once dry clip it so it is flush with the base. Add as much or as little as you would like. You can even add extra bits like unused rhino doors to represent a door blown out or ammo crates etc etc.

Once your done its time to paint. Start with a black base coat to every part of the base. Be sure it gets between the screen to the base itself below but do not clog the screen with paint. After that drybrush the entire thing with boltgun metal. be careful not to get too much down on the actual base. After that paint the accent parts whatever you want. I suggest some plasticard strip be painted some color to make the base pop and not look monochromatic and boring. After that semi drybrush some bestial brown over areas to give a weathered grime look (this is a space hulk after all). Add some blood spatter if you want then wash the grimy areas and a bit of the non grime areas around the grimy section with devlan mud. This will make the grime. Once that is fully dry give a nice heavy wash of badab black over the rest of the base with a bit of an overwash into the grimy areas. This makes the metal really pop and show the grating. it will also cover an bolt gun drybrush that got onto the bottom of the base.

And that's pretty much it. Don't worry about the pva glue clogging the screen it wont as long as you do not add way too much. Remember less is more. Well hope you enjoyed and this is just my way of doing it. There are other ways out there. Take care.

Angels Of Fury Fluff

2009-09-09T13:50:00.006-04:00

Hey everyone. I have been working on this successor chapter's fluff for at least 2 years now and while I only have 7 models painted for the army I thought I would share the fluff I have done now. Its not much for such a long time working on it but I had other stuff to do aside from this. So here we go!

Name: Angels of Fury

Parent Chapter(s): The Unforgiven... This meaning that this chapter was formed by not just the Dark Angels but the Angels of Vengeance, Absolution and Redemption chapters as well (Kept it to the second founding unforgiven)

Color Scheme: Battle grey armor, flat red emblem and weapon, black robes.

Chapter symbol: A skull with a red triangle behind it.

Knightwing symbol (first company): Crossed swords.

Razorwing symbol (second company): stylized lightning bolt/wing through a circle. The

Knightwing is there version of the Deathwing and the Razorwing is there version of the Ravenwing.

Special Characters (Not Necessarily relating to a codex special character to "count as"):

Uriel - Supreme Grand Master

Mezarius - Grand Master of Librarians

Jarus - Grand Master of the Knightwing

Mikael - Grand Master of the Razorwing

Camael - Grand Master of the Offices of Chaplaincy

Zephon - Grand Master of the Apothecarium

Gridael - Grand Master of the Forge

Azamiel - Interrogator Chaplain

Kurmael - Venerable Dreadnought The Ancient One

Battle Company Masters:

Behemial - Company Master of the third company

Sangrel - Company Master of the fourth company

Xerxes - Company Master of the fifth company

Reserve Company Masters:

Varcan - Company Master of the sixth company

Kyrial - Company Master of the seventh company

Asron - Company Master of the eighth company

Cassiel - Company Master of the ninth company

Scout Company Master:

Batarel - Company Master of the tenth company

The Chapter holds there helmet in high regard and every member wears there helmet into battle. Every piece of wargear is cared for diligently but the helmet takes on a special significance for the chapter.

Battle cry: Brothers! Release the Fury of the Lion in the name of the Emperor!!

Chapter Location:

The Angels of Fury is a fleet based chapter as far as can be told by outsiders, as it appears the entire Chapter moves as one from one system to another. Even with this the case the majority of the chapter hangs back or orbits a dead planet in the area while the chapter disperses throughout the entire system quelling rebellions and aiding in any fights against the xenos. The Chapter also takes this time to find promising recruits. Also due to this method of movement the reserve companies see more regular combat as a company as well as individual squads reinforcing battle company positions.

It is unclear why the bulk of the chapters fleet chooses to orbit over dead planets but it is thought that those not in conflict are training on the planets surface where the different terrains encountered from ruined cities to harsh deserts cannot be truly imitated onboard training vessels. This cannot be confirmed as the chapters presence at these planets is enough to divert local patrols to other areas of space less defended. Some scholars point to this fact as evidence that the chapter is doing more then training on those planets, speculating that they are searching for something.

The chapter never stays for long however and rarely communicates with local armed forces unless helping against large Ork attacks or other xenos problems and even then only rarely. The Angels of Fury hardly ever fight intermixed with local forces unless the situation is absolutely dire. Without word the entire fleet dissappears into the warp towards another system once the system has become as one imperial commander remembers one of the higher ranking Astartes saying "Purified".

In some cases vessels in orbit over dead planets have suddenly broke orbit and made for an adjacent system. These rapid response strike vessels are followed by half the fleet not in direct conflict within two standard days and the rest of the chapter once the current sytem is purified.

Chapter Traditions:

The Angels of Fury chapter like all chapters has certain rituals and traditions that they follow. One of these traditions that is noticed by anyone who bears witness to the chapter is that everyone from the Supreme Grand Master down to even scouts wears a helmet. It is a source of pride amongst the chapter and even when part of a council or meeting the Angels of Fury members always come with helmets on and only after formalities will some of them remove their helmet. A second visible tradition is that when not in armor every member of the chapter wears there robes. When in armor all battle company members must wear there robes. The razorwing are not required to wear there robes unless in attendance of an important ritual. The Knightwing is also not required to wear there robes when in there armor. Scouts have not yet earned the honor of wearing there robes into battle and as such usually wear a cloak. instead. The only command staff that is not required to wear a robe while in armor at any given time are Techmarines. This is thought to be for practical reasons.

Being founded by the unforgiven as a whole instead of one parent chapter the Angels of Fury maintain communication with all members of the unforgiven. In line with this the entire chapter is known to link up with the Dark Angels at times although imperial personnel cannot confirm this. The Angels of Fury invest great effort in keeping there link up with The Rock low profile. If reports are true then this fighting force of astartes navy assets and Marine personnel is frightening indeed. It is during this time that watchers in the dark are present onboard Angels of Fury vessels. All other times the Angels of Fury have no Watchers in the Dark present.

Purity above all else is critical to the chapter so to is there Apothecarium. The chapter has some of the finest apothecaries mostly due to the greater demand placed upon them. Constantly monitoring the geneseed is strictly adhered to while performing the additional duties demanded by the chapter. These include there usual battlefield and non battlefield duty, aiding the Techmarines in creating and maintaining the honored Dreadnoughts, Monoriting the Librarium from Grand Master to potential Lexicanian, Monitoring any official dealing between there brethren and other officials, and lastly monitoring the serfs and the organic portions of a servitor. Because of this the Apothecarium consists of a larger number of apothecaries then the codex astartes would dictate. It is thought that with such a good apothecarium that the chapters strength at its largest is around 2000 marines. As they are constantly in battle ths actual number is probably around 1600. This estimate would seem to be supported by its large navy and the fact that it recruits from nearly every suitable world they visit.

Chapter Layout and Honor Guard

1st company: Knightwing. This company is always fielded in terminator armor

2nd company: Razorwing. This company is always fielded on bikes and speeders regardless of chapter organization. Rarely utilize the Storm variant land speeder.

3rd-5th companies: Battle Companies. Standard battle companies. Each battle company has a number of company veterans who are members of the inner circle and assist the Company Master directly when on the hunt. When the chapter is not organized into an "unforgiven" pattern these veteran sqauds are deployed in 2 specific ways to help hunt the fallen. The Vengeance pursuit squads (Vanguard Veterans) are squads that hunt the fallen. When given jump packs they can assist any part of the battle line as well as locate and pursue the fallen often workin in concert with knightwing and razorwing detachments. The 2nd way is as Interdiction squads (Sternguard). These are veterans marksmen who go to battle almost solely in drop pods. These squads are given access to the chapters ranged weaponry and are the sole users of heavy flamers. The squads also have the honor of utilizing the chapters combi weaponry as well as the chapters special ammunition. Given the right combi weapon and with there ammunition these squads become effective against many targets and are adept at cutting off escape routes. When hunting the fallen these squads are used to sow confusion and terror in the ranks of enemies at key locations to cut the enemy off from itself and establish covering fire for the other elements of the hunt. It should be noted that these squads can also handle themselves in close combat if necessary.

6th-9th companies: Reserve Companies. Standard reserve companies that also have there own veterans which are broken into vengeance pursuit squads and Interdiction squads.

10th company. Scout company The only company that is not a part of the razorwing that is permitted to use bikes. As the company master of this company is a member of the inner circle like all masters he knows of the ongoing hunt. His company maintains a force of scout bikes that have the heraldry of the razorwing on them. These units are not a part of the inner circle but when in battle alongside there razorwing brothers are treated as an element of that company. They are not used to directly go after the fallen but rather are useful for guiding in other members of the inner circle as well as trapping parts of the battlefield. It is also noted that at times scouts will be used by the razorwing as fire support or as assaulters jumping out of the Storm variant speeder. The Scouts are never used for direct confrontation with fallen but rather to help with enemy resistance freeing up the inner circle to go directly after the fallen.

Chapter Fleet personnel: The fleet of the chapter is one of the largest astartes battle fleets that always moves as one. This is a double edged sword as it makes the fleet very powerful but it also means in large campaigns the fleet would be more vulnerable to boarding actions. This however is not the case as the entire chapter from serfs to the leader are well trained in boarding and counter boarding actions due to the Knightwings vigilance. Even so serfs are not space marines and can only do so much. This has given rise to a unique practice that the chapter uses. It is not known when this has started. The Chapter has what it calls Naval Sentries. These sentries are battle brothers of the Chapter that are dispersed throughout the fleet whose sole duty is to protect from boarding actions. There actual number is not known but due to the nature of a large fleet it is estimated that they number atleast 600 strong. These Sentries are not permanently assigned this duty but rather are cycled. Each sentry squad is a part of a company from 3rd to 9th company and are cycled from sentry duty to standard astartes duty. While this sentry duty is there sole duty while part of the naval sentry detail they also help train the scouts in anti boarding actions as one day should the scout survive they will be a part of the sentry detail cycle.

The Honor Guard: The Honor Guard has just one objective and that is to protect the Supreme Grand Master. Currently that man is Uriel. The Honor Guard number roughly 10 men that are hand picked by the Supreme Grand Master although when he dies the Honor Guard is not replaced by choices of the new Supreme Grand Master. Currently Uriel has hand picked 4 members from when he was elevated to the position. They are picked from members of the inner circle and only Chaplains, Librarians, Company Masters and Techmarines are not allowed to be picked. This means that company veterans to Knightwing and razorwing are eligible. Once picked the marine is given terminator training if they are not members of the deathwing and more importantly are assigned a suit of artificer armor and a relic blade. The relic blade is only used in battle if the Supreme Grand Master permits and is rarely used by the Chapter Champion. If the Honor Guard's duty is to protect Uriel then the Chapter Champion is akin to the personal bodyguard. The champion is the first to step in the way of anyone approaching Uriel in battle or in council. He will only step aside when Uriel orders him to. The Current Chapter Champion is Sangriel. The Honor Guard never take there helmets off except when they are by themselves or when they are alone with Uriel.

So that's the fluff so far. I know some of it is unorthodox but I took creative license as its my home brewed idea. Also the chapter uses the new space marine codex. Why? Well I am doing everything from the Dark Angel Codex with my Dark Angels Armies. If I used that for my Angels of Fury it would be the same army and play style with a different color and that would be boring. The new Space Marine codex play differently and has some fun units so I went with that.

Hope it was not too boring. until next time..

Callidus and Admech

2009-08-24T22:10:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone. Some more pics of some models painted. My callidus assassin and 2 test models for my admech imperial guard. So lets get right to it.

The flash really made the colors look a lot brighter then they are. Regardless I liked how the model turned out. Went with a dark blue suit color for fun.

These guys will be for my Admech army using imperial guard codex. The one on the left will represent flak armor and the other will be for carapace armor. The red is scab red but the flash again makes it look brighter. I will eventually take better photos of stuff in the future. The metallic part is a mixture of black and boltgun metal. I like the result. legs are high elf archer or warrior (for carapace), chest and arms are cadian and the head is elysian. You'll have to use greenstuff to blend the legs and chest together as they do not line up correctly. My greenstuff skill is poor at best but with time i think my skills will improve as I will have to make many of these guys.

Well that's it. Hope you enjoyed. Until next time.

Blood Reavers Blood Knight

2009-08-16T16:32:00.002-04:00

Hey. Another paint progress update. This time its another Blood Reavers model. This is a count as Emperor's Champion but for the Blood Reavers they call it Blood Knight. So here are some pictures.

Firstly I want to say that the Blood Reavers are loyal to the Emperor and the Imperium. I kept the horns on the helmet because there is no real reason why loyal chapters cannot have some horn iconography. Also the Blood Reavers army will have a list for Blood Angels and a list for Black Templars. This model will only be for lists that are Black Templars lists.

I like the giant axe as it goes well with the aggressive style that I'm trying to give the Blood Reavers. Well that's it for now. Until next time.

Counts as Lysander and Exorcists Champion

2009-08-15T17:25:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. Here are the rest of the models I finished last week. One is a kit bashed Emperors Champion the other is a counts as Lysander. Here are the pics again not the best quality photo and the models look better in person. I am no pro painter though which should be obvious.

So this model is an Exorcist model for the Exorcists chapter. I plan to build a list for them using the black Templar's codex. Hence why I have this champion model. However should I use another codex I can use him as a captain with thunderhammer. The hammer fits well with the fluff of the chapter considering they recieve similar training for combating demons that Grey Knights do. And the Hammer is a big theme for hunting Daemons so here Henry has a hammer.

Here is the counts as Lysander for a DIY chapter called Bone Scorpions. Lysander was a good character for them as he fit there style. More on them as I figure out what I exactly what I want to do with them.

I am almost done with some other models so another painting update soon. Do not worry I have plans for more basing and tactica and etc etc videos. So until then. Take care

Titan crew on foot Done

2009-08-15T17:08:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone. Last week I did a bunch of painting. One of the things I got to finish painting was the Titan crew on Foot. For actual gaming Two of the crew on foot will represent Advisors and the one with the gun will be a random trooper for a command squad I guess. Still haven't figured that out. Here they are. Sorry about picture quality was in a rush.

As in a previous post the Moderatii with the auspex thing in his hand will still represent a Master of Ordnance. The Princep model (One with no helmet) I plan to use as a Master of the fleet because I think he looks the part. There seems to be a hair on the auspex guy in the picture but its not stuck to him through paint or anything.

The models look better without the harsh flash that drowns out the color. The metallic parts are a chaos black bolt gun metal mixed darkly.

I painted other models which will get a post after this one. Still no update on the Actual Titan or my Admech test model but as I make progress I will post that. Until next time.

Codices

2009-07-26T22:35:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. Another pictureless post but that's ok!

Today I want to rant about codices.. No not complaining about any of them but on how to use then past there literal intentions. What do I mean? Well ill tell you.

A codex is designed to let you play that specific army and of course we all know that and they do a good job. But not everything in the 40k universe is represented. For example DIY Space Marine Chapters often utilize either the generic codex or one of the chapter specific codex (Dark Angel, Black Templar etc.) regardless of whether or not they are a successor chapter. Why does this matter? Well because this is what I am talking about and think is great. Essentially using a codex "Counts As" Army.

For example. By Blood Reavers Space Marine Chapter of which I have that 1 test model is going to be a counts as army using the Blood Angels codex or Black Templars codex depending on army list. That chapter has nothing to do with Blood Angels or Black Templars but is using the rules for those armies.

it doesn't have to be as straight forward as that. From the Warp has a great example of this type of army with his Lustwing. Using the Dark Angels codex for the Deathwing and Grey Knight terminator allies to represent his Lustwing a chaos terminator army. That is a good example of using a codex for its special rules to represent an army of your own design.

There are other examples. One being Using the Tyranid Codex to represent the Xenos on the planet murder from the Horus Heresy Novel series.

Another example is using the witch hunter codex to represent an Admech army. Using the faith points to represent special tech or faith in the omnissiah. Or utilizing the Daemonhunters codex Grey Knight forces to represent Adeptus Custodes along with Space marine allies painted like adeptus custodes.

The new Guard Codex can represent a variety of things aside from the regiments. You can represent traitor guard using many psykers or whatever you want. You can represent Arbites using the guard codex. A penal legion is obvious as well. you can also represent a remnant or hive ganger militia army. You can also play a Admech army with this codex. All these ideas can utilize special characters or specific squads utilizing the counts as rule and of course your own model modification abilities.

So in short if you have an idea for an army from the 40k fluff that does not have its own codex sit down and look at the codices and think. Think about what has the best unit choices and rules set to best represent the army and go with that codex. Just make it clear via wargear options as well as telling your opponent what represents what if its not clear. For Example my counts as Tigiruis model for my pre-heresy Thousand Sons stands out from the rest of the army but I still will let my opponent know what he is.

I find that most players are fine with armies like this as long as you obeying the rules of the codex your using and of 40k and of course that your nice and sporting about telling your opponent what is what. Feel free to post your own army ideas that you have or are using for an army that does not necessarily have its own codex in the comments. Until next time..

Vehicle and Unit upgrades

2009-07-18T15:20:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. Sorry for lack of pictures. I will have pictures of stuff in the future.

Thought I would bring up a little tactica on upgrades. Now in my opinion upgrades are an important part of any army. be it biomorphs for Tyranids or vehicle upgrades or whatever these are the choices that can make an army more effective if used properly.

How do you use upgrades properly? Well you spend points on them of course but it is more then that. In the case of a rhino for example do you take extra armor and a hunter killer missile? Well it all depends on what your going for but what I am getting at is points. Dumping points into upgrades means that your army is going to be smaller. Now its unavoidable for example a devastator squad is meant to take heavy weapons but should the sergeant of that squad have a power weapon of powerfist? Again there is no definite answer as it depends on the army as a whole.

So lets looks at some point costs. Power weapons and powerfist vary between +15 to +25 points depending on codices and which weapon your getting... in general. Now imagine every squad that can take such an upgrade does in your army and well the points add up. Now that is fine but you have to keep that in mind as it can mean the difference between getting that 4th squad or not.

With vehicles it is a little easier to look at. aside from extra armor (in my opinion) everything else is non essential. My only exception is sponsons as i am a huge fan of sponson weapons. However you need not take the expensive sponsons unless your plan calls for it. Dozerblades and hunter killer missiles can be nice and depending on tactic can be great but if you step back and look at it you may not need all those hunter killer missiles which would allow you to take another vehicle perhaps or more effective wargear upgrades.

This idea is especially true with tyranids and there biomorphs. You can really tool out squads with access to a lot of biomorphs but that in turn lowers your squad size and overall amount of squads in general. Taking 1 or 2 essential upgrades can mean the difference between being able to field more squads which can mean the difference more so then how strong one unit is.

Well that is pretty much all there is to say in general about that. It is a simple concept but upgrades can be really tempting. If it does not fit into your armies plan it may not be necessary.

Until next time.

Target Priority: Shooting

2009-07-11T11:53:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. The second installment of Target Priority is here! This is focusing on the shooting phase.

Again this is not about the old special rule. This is about getting the most out of your shooting phase and this is done by picking optimal targets for your units to shoot at. Now aside from some special rules for specific weapons (Like Gauss Weaponry for Necrons) not every weapon is effective against everything. And even weapons that can hurt potentially anything have there specific uses in which they are best. This is all obvious but when people are into the game sometimes the best decisions are not made.

So firstly you have to decide what weapon upgrades you will be taking for your squads. Once your have your army list you need to effectively deploy your army. Deployment is key with shooting because not everyone can move and shoot heavy weapons. If you deply your heavy weapons too close they can be shot up or forced to move back denying you a shot with them that turn. if they weapons are too far away you may not have great targets to shoot at. Terrain factors in. You wont your heavy weapons safe but also with a good vantage point. One thing to keep in mind is that your opponent does not want you to shoot him (Duh!) so if you have a lot of heavy fire on a certain flank you can deny it for the most part to your enemy. Flank Denial is something ill go over in the future.

So the game is in progress what do you shoot where? Well your high strength weaponry will usually be best for tank hunting or Monstrous creature hunting. That Lascannon team or Devastator squad etc will primarily be hunting for things of that nature. On the flip side your heavy bolter or scatter lasers will be chewing into infantry squads. Weapons like Plasma are usually used against heavily armored infantry like Terminators or Meganobz. But Plasma is also good against regular infantry and can destroy light vehicles and potentially wound any Monstrous creature. The true all comers weapon is the Missile Launcher with ammunition for either anti infantry or anti tank.

So in general weapons like those mentioned should be used against there best targets. The trend with 5th edition is for more weapons like Heavy bolters and Melta weaponry and a general less use of things like Lascannons. Why? Cover saves are everywhere making weapons with big punch but low shots less favorable. I personally still like them because they can drop vehicles which have a harder time effectively getting cover saves and the enemy will maneuver differently when my Dark Angel Devestators with 2 Lascannons and 2 Plasma Cannons are in a good positions of fire. This is good because your making your opponent either deal with them right away or move in a way they may not want to originally. But anyway because cover saves are everywhere more people are opting for the "torrent of fire" tactic. Essentially they want to flood infantry (and this only really works with infantry) with so many wounds that they cannot pass them all. This is a good tactic and one that has been in play for a while. So you will see more things like Heavy Bolters concentrating fire into that squad in cover.

Speaking of cover template weapons have increased in popularity. Denying the cover save to a squad can mean the difference between getting a save at all or not. Template weapons ignore cover but the drawback is short range. This means you have to think about how your going to move them and support them. Blast weaponry I feel is also a good choice against units in cover. The reason is because while it generally does not ignore cover its one shot can wound multiple models. With units going to cover they will be in general more bunched together where frag missiles, plasma cannons etc can bring the blast templates strength to good use.

Other armies have way of dealing with cover. Tau Markerlights for example can make the cover save worse and potentially remove it all together if you have enough markerlight counters available. The Key to dealing with cover is knowing what your army has up its sleeve.

One things to be mindful of is assaulting. Do you want to risk getting close enough to rapid fire into a hardened squad only to be charged because of it? Or your assaulters are in position to launch an assault this turn. Do you have them shoot there pistols or have another squad of your shoot the squad you want to assault to weaken it only to leave your assaulters high and dry to get shot up next turn? There is no clear answer. There is always risk involved in a war game but in scenarios like these both yes and no are correct. It all depends on what your squads have and are and what your targets are. i wouldn't necessarily risk rapid firing into a nob squad or a terminator squad. Alternatively if my assault unit was really close to the unit i want to assault i may try to soften it up with shooting.

Alright so that's the basics of selecting targets. Obviously there is more to it with shooting. Like how Fire Dragon squads are really good at dealing with small elite squads in shooting and not just armor. The general thing is to maximize your effectiveness with your guns. Assaulting may be brutal in 5th edition but shooting happens more often statistically in the game. Proper shooting can turn the tide easily for more armies then assaulting can.

I am going to try and get at least 1 post up here a week from now on. More tactica via my opinion, tutorials and progress stuff. This post will get a video supplement soon. until next time..

Target Priority: Assault

2009-06-29T12:21:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone. Its been a bit since Ive posted here but I'm still around. So this post is part of a two part series that will be covering what I call Target priority. I'm not refering to the 4th ed. rule. What I'm talking about is effectively picking targets to maximize your units effect on the battlefield.

This first part is about Assaulting. The assault phase is a very brutal phase in 40k. Games Workshop describes the assault phase as a swirling melee with weapons flying blood and gore everywhere as the units fight a desperate battle against each other and the 5th ed. assault phase does a good job of that. So what does target priority have to do with this? Well not every unit is an assaulting specialist and those that are do not all work the same way.

Firstly not all units are created equal.. especially for the assault phase. We all know the basics of this. Tau firewarriors are weak in the assault,Tyranid Genestealers are strong in assault, etc etc. But there are units that can assault that are not specifically geared for it. A good example are Tactical Marines for Space Marines. They are not geared for assault but they can do it and often do. However they have to be used effectively or they will be withered down. Firstly with assaulting with tactical marines is that they should shoot first and often. With Tactical Marines there shooting is a strength they have and even though they have a great stat line for general assaulting they should utilize there bolters and special weapons widdle down the enemy and then finish them off in melee if necessary. Now this is just a general guideline.. against Tau you may want to rush into assault with there fire warriors and against tyranids you may want to maximize your shooting. It all depends on what you face but a general guide line is they should shoot first and utilize assault as the last measure to finish off a unit if necessary.

Now with dedicated assault units like Assault Marines, Striking Scorpions, Genestealers etc. the thought process is different. With units like these you want to get them into assault quickly and as unmolested as potentially possible. These either means fast moving, outflanking or infiltrating to get into a nice position or utilizing transports. However you get your assaulters across the board you have to do it effectively. To demonstrate what I mean I will talk about Striking Scorpions and Howling Banshees.

Those two units are assault specialists but they work differently and are meant to be utilized for different roles. Howling Banshee squads are full of power weapons and go at a high initiative on the charge. Down side? average strength and toughness a weaker save and not many more attacks then standard assault oriented units. So what are they good for then? Well they can assault imperial guardsmen, Ork boyz, tactical marines and stuff like that and do well against them but that is not utilizing them to full effect. Because they deny armour saves they are good to throw against terminators to force them using a lesser save. Even against the new stormshield it will force that lesser save. Now on the other hand Striking Scorpions have a better save then banshees a higher modified strength and more attacks. Down side? Well like with most assaulters they don't have power weapons except for the upgrade weapon for the exarch which strikes at initiative 1. So how does his unit differ? Well It can dish out a lot of attacks which could overwhelm a squad of 5 terminators but that is not the way to maximize there effectiveness. Chances are some terminators will live and proceed to cripple your scorpions. This unit is good at dealing with hordes. With the amount of attacks at a strength of 4 the scorpions can deal with units over double its size. They have a decent initiative and the armor save to live through the attack backs in general.

The two examples above basically are anti elite assaulters and anti horde assaulting. In general if you assault smart you will have a higher success rate in your assaulting. This is a basic concept but in the heat of the game Ive seen assault units just chomping into the nearest thing they can which is not always the greatest thing.

Well that was long enough I'm guessing. heh. Take care everyone and thanks for sticking with me. I will try to add more here quicker then this. Also this Target Priority series will have a video supplement at some point on the Fortress Monastery youtube channel which has a link in the astronomicon section of this site.

Blood Reavers test Model

2009-06-07T12:05:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone. this post is about my Blood Reavers Space Marine chapter. This chapter came to existence because my other chapters I have can only run one way really and that's the way I built them. Dark Angels use there codex. Pre heresy thousand Sons were built to utilize the Space Marine codex. My Dark Angel Successor Chapter uses the Space Marine Codex but in a different way just like my Iron Ravens idea and the official chapters I still want to do all have there set ways.

So what does that mean? Well the Blood Reavers came to being because I wanted a hard hitting assaulting Marine army. I am not a fan of Space Wolves so that left Blood Angels and Black Templars.. and I decided this chapter would do double duty. I am modeling it to have the capability to do both codices. now there will be a few models that wont be usable in both but that is fine. So here is the test model! Sorry for the fuzzy picture camera went wonky.

Now I just have some minor touch up work to do mostly on the shoulder pads but aside from that it is done. I know the black isn't highlighted and it wont be. But anyway it is a sergeant for a Assault Marine squad if ran in a Blood Angel codex or a initiate with powerfist in a Black Templar codex. The magnetized back packs let it go into both codices and allows flexibility in both. They are a loyalist chapter in case anyone was wondering.

I wanted a more dynamic pose so I bent him a bit so it looks like he is looking down from higher ground issuing an order before leaping with his jump pack or before charging.

When I get better at making the models magnetized I will post a tutorial on here but it will take a few more marines. The legs are from a Khorne Beserker box. I have fluff for the chapter and when in the future I will post about it.

More to come on these guys and my other Space Marines in the future. Until next time..

Admech Advisor

2009-06-07T11:56:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. Ive been a little busy with the hobby so I got some stuff done like those bases in the last post. Here we have what I will be using for a Master of Ordnance Advisor for my Admech army.

He is a Titan crew member on foot from forgeworld. I do not have the other 2 painted up yet but this guy is one of the moderati. I thought he would fit well with the admech army as he looks techy enough. The model is perfect for the master of ordnance I feel because he has a little data slate thing in his hand so it looks like he is marking coordinates to transmit back to whatever is dropping the ordnance (Titans or Admech Ordinatus perhaps?). i will eventually paint the other 2.

A word of caution for these models is that they are one piece meaning the model and base are molded together. That is fine but they are casted in a white resin or some such which feels weak. You could probably snap this model in half with your hands easily. So some care is needed when your painting the model. More Admech to come in the future.

All Your Base... Batch painting

2009-06-07T11:48:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone. I thought i would share how I normally do bases. So here is a picture.

Now unless there a special character or some special kind of unit I do bases in batches. How I determine how many to do is simple as it's based on the squad size. These bases are for a group of 20 shoota boyz. I normally do the bases first. The only exception are slotted or peg models in which case the bases are done last but even in this case I usually do them by squad size.

It can certainly feel like a grind doing 20 or more bases at once. Sometimes ill do them in batches of 5 at a time but I will get all the bases done before I work on the models. If I were to make a rubbled bases I would test fit a model first but it would be unbased just clipped to make sure it will fit. But doing bases in batches makes them go decently quick especially once you get into the "zone".

I prefer putting models on bases after it is based so it looks like they are walking on the desert or whatever the base is instead of looking like there sinking slightly into it.

Well that's that for batch painting bases. More Basing to come in the future.

Admech Commissar

2009-05-28T22:52:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone. To go with my last all your base post I have a model using one of the bases. Now I didn't try the orange light drybrush on this base. Ill try it on the other one and if it looks nice and subdued ill go back and touch up this base.

The model is a Death Korp Commissar. But it will be for my Admech army as a Commissar. I just love the model so i decided to use it for my Admech. I think it fits in well as the gas mask head give it a tech and inhuman feel.

Well thats the model. The actual Armies color scheme is that of his pants which is scab red over mechrite red. the metal bits are a mix of chaos black and bolt gun with a light pure boltgun highlight.

Thats pretty much it. I have stuff in various stages that im working on and part 3 of the Legends of War should be starting soon which means a 20 shoota boy strong squad to work on that gets priority. More updates and other stuff as i get to them. take care.

All Your Base... Martian desert

2009-05-24T13:04:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone. Been busy but I did make some progress hobby wise. Here is another All your Base installment. This time it is my attempt at a martian desert type of scheme. The results work although there is probably a better way to do it. But this was quick and easy.

Alright so after flocking the base I gave it a base coat of bestial brown. Any darker brown will work but I went with bestial because it has a kind of reddish quality to it.

I then heavily drybrushed the base with scab red once the bestial brown was fully dried. I tried to cover practically all the brown with scab red leaving trace amounts of brown.

The final step was to drybrush red gore on top of the scab red. This was a light drybrush that I did only until I saw a slight difference in color on some of the flock. You could probably go beyond this with a mix of red gore and blood red or some sort of orange but I left it at this stage because I did not want a more extreme highlight color. I did the sides of the base with Graveyard earth.

That's pretty much it for this type of base. Ill have more bases to come soon as well as progress updates when I have things to report. Until next time...

All Your Base... Urban

2009-05-13T19:27:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone. Ive been busy with Work and building my new computer so I haven't had time to post here. But here is another installment of All your Base!.. This time is Urban basing. Now i am going to make another post on here when I do more Biker bases as I do not have a picture of the finished base without the bikes on them. But here we go:

Firstly After flocking what I do far all urban bases is base coat the stuff black. I try to get everything coated in back but if some flock isn't covered that's fine. The later stages should deal with that.

And there are the bases done. What I did here was drybrushed codex and fortress gray over the black. For the yellow striping I used Iyanden Darksun foundation as it is nice and flat. Now there are 2 ways I dry brush urban. If I want it to be a non street urban base I make it very grey with codex grey. If I want it more of a urban street its a light drybrush of the grey so the black bleeds through the drybrushing. That's pretty much it. As I said when i do more of these bases ill make an additional post for urban showing the base in more detail.

One quick note. These new biker bases are great. As you can see the bikes sit fine on them. As far as I know there only available with the scout bikes but you can buy them in groups of 5 off Games Workshop's website. Well until next time... Take care.

Crusade era Thousand Sons.. Finished!

2009-04-28T22:04:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone. Its been a while but there finally done. So here is the entire army in one picture:

3 tactical squads, 2 HQs, 2 vindicators, 1 grey knight terminator squad. that right there is 1750 pts.

It was a fun army to build with lots of kit bashing. I played it in a tournament and scored in the middle of the list of people overall which isn't bad for a list built for fluff and not power.

Well there it is the army finally finished. I will no doubt add to it in the future but for now time for tons of other projects! Until the next one.

Horus Heresy Novel series

2009-04-22T21:55:00.002-04:00

Hey all just a quick post on the Horus Heresy novels.

Now I'm not going to rate them or review them just list the ones out currently as of the date of this posting.

So there are 10 total books so far as of the day of this posting:
Horus Rising
False Gods
Galaxy in Flames
The Flight of the Eisenstein
Fulgrim
Descent of Angels
Legion
Battle For the Abyss
Mechanicum
Tales of Heresy

Those are the 10 the Tales of Heresy is a short story book with 7 stories in it. The rest are novels.

Alright so there novels based in the 40k universe obviously. They are based around the Heresy time period which I am a huge fan of so it is no surprise that I love these book. There not works of gold or anything but just really enjoyable if your into the heresy. They are focused on the Imperium and primarily the Space Marine Legions with a few exceptions. So if your not into the Imperium really then the series may not be for you.

Other then that there is not much to say as a at a glimpse type of thing. More are coming out and there is no limit supposedly to how many books they will release for the Horus Heresy.

I listed the novels in order of release in case you are interested in jumping into the series (if you haven't already).
Until next time.

Tactica Outnumbered!... Deathwing

2009-04-13T21:34:00.003-04:00

Keeper of the Fortress

Alright everyone this is the last in the segment for Tactica Outnumbered!.. If you think I missed an army feel free to post a comment on this post with the army and type (Space marine Bikes for example although that was talked about). This will help me more then just the army. I will try to cover it if possible either here or on my youtube page (link in my Astronomicon section).

Anyway this time it is the Deathwing (Cue angelic reaper music). One of the more unique armies a deathwing army is made up entirely of well the Deathwing. A terminator army. Some things to keep in mind: To keep it fluffly it should include only terminator infantry supported by Landraiders, Dreadnoughts and maybe vindicators. Secondly this is a small army both in squad size and in army size.

Alright so Deathwing armies need to be led by Belial to work. He can be be equipped either with storm bolter and sword of silence, twin lightning claw or Thunderhammer Storm shield so he has some options. He also allows you to have a pseudo command squad with one squad being able to take an apothecary and a deathwing standard bearer. Same rules for this standard as the ravenwing one as well as the apothecary.

Now onto Deathwing squads. As Belial lets you take them as troops that is just what your going to do. They are only able to be a 5 man squad. They cannot be made bigger. They start out at 215 points per squad. They can take one range weapon per squad (cyclone, assault cannon, heavy flamer) and all can replace power fist or power sword for chain fist. The nice thing is that you can mix assault terminators with ranged ones so you can put a heavy flamer with an assault squad. Also the cyclone missile launcher can be put on any terminator which means assault terminators can have the missile launcher on them. Remember though that this one works like the old missile launcher so only 1 shot not 2. This ability to mix your squads means you can have your squads tooled out to whatever role you need. As for deathwing assault that really is dependent on the board, your opponent, your list and what you plan to do. Its is worth remembering it is there in case you need it.

So how mechanized do you go? That depends. The more you go the less squads you will have. You also can go pure infantry which is a harder list but gives you the max number of squads. That is a pure water type list that will can taken apart if you falter. I usually suggest at least one Landraider chassis either crusader or standard. I prefer the standard landraider as it adds some much need long range anti tank punch to the army but if you want to assault with at initiative weapons going at initiative the crusader is the way to go as it will allow Belial to go wit ha squad (remember these landraiders transport 10 not 12).

So what are the pro's of this army? Well Terminator troop choices for one. having a 2+/5+ standard for troops is strong also 2 attacks base. Deathwing are fearless so they will never run meangin it will be hard to move them from an objective in cover. Every terminator close combat attack is a form of power weapon meaning that even shooty terminators are dangerous in close combat if they are given the chance to strike back. The ability to move shoot and assault all in the same turn is another strong point. Move to get in range and shoot then keep them at your range by moving back or at an angle and shoot. Whittling the enemy down is a huge Deathwing Strategy.

The Con's are standard for all outnumbered armies. They are outnumbered and with squad only able to be 5 man strong you have to be careful. Also the high amount of potential I 1 weapons means that you have to be careful who you assault. Rending attacks will hurt if you go after them. Also lack of supporting fire means that the deathwing squads will have to support each other carefully.

That is about it really for Deathwing. It is a really cool and strong army with good staying power. No opponent really likes to deal with terminators. Despite what some may say Deathwing is a tournament capable list.

Tactica Outnumbered!... Ravenwing

2009-04-06T22:09:00.002-04:00

Keeper of the Fortress

Hey everyone. I am back and still working on those crusade era Thousand sons! But that's alright. Now its time for my next installment of Tactica Outnumbered! its been a while but I have not forgotten.

Alright the Ravenwing is the second company of the Dark Angels and is a all bike company. I wont go into there fluff because that is not what this is about. They are unique to the standard biker army from the generic codex due to there special rules.

Ravenwing members are all fearless which is great. Why? Because as with the other biker army they are not meant for assault. They can do it but being outnumbered and expensive you want to maximize your shooting. Normally with a small squad size you would have to start taking shooting morale tests quicker then other squads. Even with Space Marine leadership you will eventually fail and you do not want to ever fall back. Also all ravenwing bikes have the scout rule. So they can outflank just like Khan armies or make a free move (unlike khan armies). This is great for getting into better positions or closing the distance on easy assault targets (like Tau).

Aside from special rules there wargear is slightly different. All bikes have a built in Teleport Homer meaning all bikes are mobile teleport homers for deathwing if you were to play a mixed list. This tactica is for pure ravenwing but it is worth mentioning. Also the typhoon missile launcher works like the old rules (heavy 1 blast thing). Ravenwing cannot take scout bikers (as its what is only in the Dark Angels Codex). ravenwing sergeants have a bolt pistol (or chainsword) so if given a powerweapon they get the +1 for two cc weapons. This is nice to think about aside from the standard powerfists everywhere with some sergeants. Also the Ravenwing cannot take a true command squad but can upgrade one squad to have a company standard and/or a apothecary which is really all you need. Also our Apothecary does not grant feel no pain but still works the old way (which I like). Also Sammael has rites of battle (which again is for a mixed army)

Alright one other key difference is that you have to Take Sammael to take a ravenwing army which is fine. He can be a Landspeeder with better front and side armor for shooting attacks only and twin linked heavy bolter and assault cannon or a Jetbike with a plasma cannon, twinlinked stormbolter, bolt pistol, Master crafted powersword, and mantle (to be immune to instant death) and iron halo. Both are BS of 5 and both are good options. It depends on your style and tactic. I like his jetbike as it is a jetbike and can just go over terrain and enemy models and has a plasma cannon which at BS 5 can be very accurate for a blast weapon and it helps deal with higher toughness or units with a good armor save.

Also the ravenwing land speeder support squadron can be a total of 5 strong as opposed to the 3 strong of the generic codex but can only have one weapon upgrade each unlike the generic codex. The troop choice is the attack squadron which total size is 6 bikes one attack bike and a landspeeder. These are the only options you have for a true ravenwing army so you need to make the most of them. And yes there is no attack bike squadron but that is alright you can deal fine as every troop choice can have 1 that deploys on its own.

Alright as with all outnumbered armies your going to have fewer models on the board which means fewer scoring units. The key to the ravenwing is mobility and knowing how and where to go. Being fast is good but you do not want to stretch yourself thin or get somewhere too early. What I mean is that you do not want to be sitting on an objective 3rd turn but move and turbo if necessary on turn 5. This is great because you can safely not hold any objective until the end and just pick apart an enemy that may have to start sitting on objectives early. Even mechanized lists have to get to objectives earlier then biker armies.

So what do you do? Well I suggest making use of both outflanking and scouting depending on mission and enemy of course. But I suggest at least having one unit in reserve to outflank or one unit on the board to scout (remember Sammael cannot scout and land speeder cannot scout). Also use the terrain to your advantage by speeding behind cover to get into position then next turn pushing out into an exposed area. It is important not to split your forces as you will not have the numbers but you can go for that feint as you have the speed to regroup behind the enemy.

I suggest always taking the apothecary upgrade and putting it with a squad that has to plasmaguns thus making them a little safer. As the banner has to go in the same squad I would only take it if you want to run the squad into assault. It is a nice banner but I prefer to keep that squad back shooting with the plasma (Remember bikes have the relentless rule) and moving closer to double tap exposed units to wipe them out. I also suggest that every attack bike that you have should take a multi melta as it costs no additional points for them and for 50 points you can take out land raiders.

Also the landspeeder squadrons should either be taken as one landspeeder with assaultcannon multi melta for take hunting or as a squad keeping the heavy bolter and taking the typhoon missile launcher as well to deal with hordes or as close to full size as possible with multi meltas to take out tanks.

So basically there tactics are similar to generic bikers. They have different strengths and weaknesses but are a very good biker army. Ravenwing armies are a bit smaller then generic biker armies to movement and maximizing your firepower is critical here (as with most outnumbered armies.. seeing a pattern here?).

That is it. eventually this will get a video supplement to help it out. Until then I will do the final installment focusing around the Deathwing. Take care.

Prospero Update

2009-03-31T20:37:00.004-04:00

Hey all just a quick update. Finished all the vehicles I need for my crusade era Thousand Sons. So here they are:

1 vindicator and 3 rhinos in total. I only showed you 2 different rhinos but there are 3 done. the weathering was done to match the bases on my infantry.

That's it for now. Hopefully I will have the infantry done by Friday. Until next time..

Sons of Prospero Minor Update

2009-03-26T22:18:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone. Just a minor update. Got 5 more marines done. I have to do 4 more vehicles and 16 more marines for this army so next update will most likely be it finished which ideally will be around Sunday. So here are some pictures:

Just bolter marines. The two with the crazy plumage are tests because I want to eventually in the future when i slowly add to the army to create a sternguard or a counts as Legion of the Damned squad because both have good rules that fit well with the fluff of the Thousand Sons during the crusade. Anyways hope you enjoyed. I didn't wash the gold parts on purpose because i like the contrast.

Until next time..

Army at at glance.. Necrons

2009-03-23T21:42:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. Just thought I would do a little installment on Armies called Armies at a glance.

Basically giving a little fluff overview and gameplay overview. I am not going to go into detail on the entries or wargear really. I also will only touch upon the special rules hence at a glance. This installment is really about armies that get flak.

Alright so first on the block are the Necrons:

The faceless unfeeling undead machines. Once alive the Necrontyr made a pact with the C'tan (Star Gods) and become the Necrons. That's the in a nutshell blurb on there background. They are an ancient race with very advanced technology and the ability to travel great distances fast without the warp. There Gauss weaponry is the most efficient weaponry out there. The Necrons and the Eldar are bitter enemies although the Necrons will reap any and all life. If you want more on there fluff the codex and wiki sites will no doubt have more detailed information.

Gameplay wise the Necrons are an Earth style army. Very resiliant with the ability to get back up makes them hard to kill. Ther are a shooty army mostly because of the Gauss special rule. It lets any Gauss weaponry always glancing hit a vehicle on a 6. But what it also does that people forget is allow those weapons to wound any non vehicle unit on a roll of a 6 (normals saves allowed). This makes the weapons very efficient allowing any Gauss weapon to always be effective against any army.

Now being they are a legion of robotic zombies essentially they are static model wise. Meaning that in general they all have similar poses with not much to really make the army individualist (in general) aside from paint scheme. But this also lends to its charm as they are a legion of death so a very cookie cutter-esque look lends to that imposing inevitability.

Pros of the Necrons:
- Gets back up (same rules as feel no pain only during the beginning of your movement phase), Gauss weaponry always glance or wound on a 6. Disrupter fields allow CC attacks to always glance vehicles on a 6, A nearly indestructible vehicle the Monolith. A fast building and painting army. C'tan are tough as nails.

Cons:
-The phase out rule which makes the necron army vanish from the board if they get reduced to 25% or less models with the necron rule. This results in an auto loss, Low initiative for most units. If you get tied in CC with your warriors your going last but before powerfist weaponry, Kinda high priced units. No real reason to include some of the specialist units as they are either too points heavy or do not have the necron rule.

So that's a quick glance at the necrons. They are a strong army and forgiving. The wargear options for the Lord lend to lots of customization and combos. Until next time.

Picking an Army.. Space Marines

2009-03-21T12:14:00.002-04:00

Hey there. This is just a follow up on Picking an army. This has to deal with Space Marines because A) I know about them as I play them and B) Space marines are so diverse that they pretty much cover all aspects of the game (all 4 elements, many play styles etc). This can still be of some help for picking an army in general but this may be of more help for those who are new to Space Marines.

So lets say you want to be space marines well what now? Ok well first you have to take a step back and look at all the space marines out there. For purposes of ease I mean the codices. So we have: Codex Space Marines, Black Templars, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels and Daemonhunters. I include Daemonhunters because of the grey knights.

Firstly unless your really set on space wolves/ are able to find a codex or are able to get your hands on the codex I would suggest avoiding them for now. I only say this because yea you could use another codex and if you do i would suggest the Black Templar codex to run them with for now if you want to build a force of them. But a new codex for them is somewhere in the release schedule.

Also Greyknights are different in that here highly specialized with unique war gear. They play like a water army with great fire ability. I wont touch on them here really but in a future post I will.

So aside from that we are left with the other codicies. So if your not driven to any one codex due to looks or fluff then it falls to there play styles. So do you want to shoot or assault more? Now the nice thing is the Codex Space Marines can do both so that codex is always an option.

If you want to assault more then shoot I would suggest looking at the Blood Angels, Black Templars or Space Wolves (if you can get the codex). Yes they have shooting units but there strengths are in the assault. They all play differently too so this further breaks down assaulting into how you like to assault. I wont go into detail but I will give a blurb on each. If you like the idea of space vikings with hot headed units as well as grizzled veteran then you may like Space Wolves. If you like the idea of an eternal crusade of super knights that have a champion as well as who move forward when they take casualties then you may want to look at Black Templars. If you like the idea of a noble chapter that goes into a berserk fury with a super assault squad and assault marines as troops then you may want to go Blood Angels.

Alright so if assault isn't your style then you may want to look at Dark Angels (ill talk about codex space marines later). Dark Angels can do the assault and do it well but they are more about the shooting in my opinion. Dark Angel armies are really 3 separate armies that can be fused together. You have Battle company, Ravenwing and Deathwing. All 3 really need to make use of shooting to be effective. You can still have an assault driven list but the difference here is that assault with them is usually the last step to victory.

Ok so remember that codex space marines can do both as it is the codex for all other chapters. So that means this codex is essentially good for everyone interested in space marines that do not have there heart set on a specific chapter. Now special characters aside you can tool out your army to be good at assaulting or shooting by selecting specific units. Note however that while they can do assaulting this codex is a little hard pressed to do it as well as the assault oriented codices.

So that's pretty much the codices in a nutshell. Notice how I didn't touch on war gear. I did that on purpose because while war gear is important when you build your lists it should not factor into choosing an army. Yes storm shields work differently for codex space marines but that should not decide the codex for you. Every codex is viable so you need to pick ultimately what you feel you'll like the most. Having a strong list will come in time.

Welp hope that helps. Until next time.

Videos

2009-03-19T23:30:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone. Just a quick info post. I started making some youtube videos in relation to 40k cause I thought it would be a nice way to enhance my blog. This blog here will still be my primary way of getting my point across and submitting material but the youtube channel will help this blog with that. I will be doing videos on what I already have posted here as well as stuff I will have posted a day or so in advance. Now there will be some random videos of things that i just cannot get across easily typing if at all but that should not happen to much.

I just made a video about WYSIWYG and counts as that has no relation to a post here because i couldn't figure out how to write it. So i figured this would be a good time to introduce that youtube channel.

Its link is: http://www.youtube.com/KeeperoftheFortress . So hope you enjoy it if you want to take a look at it.

More to come on this blog soon. Including Tactica outnumbered! heh soon i swear. Until then.

All Your Base.. Idea

2009-03-17T21:40:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. Another segment of all your base. It will be quickie as its more an idea then actual how to.

I was reading the new White Dwarf with the War of the Ring information in it. In the beginning it shows the movement trays and I got an idea. Those movement trays are for 25mm and 40mm bases. Last I checked 40 uses those bases. Now I'm not saying use them in games but they can work really well in display boards. How? You can use them to create flush displays where the base is inset into the display.

Now they are rigid blocks but you can take extra 25 or 40mm bases and make them objective markers or whatever to break up the blocks.

How I would do this is find a board the same thickness as the movement trays then cut out rectangles where you want the movement trays. Then I would find a rigid under board to glue both the top board and the trays to. Flock and base then put the models on and there bases would be flush with the board.

Now this would not work for models that you would want on the cities of death terrain but it can work for other larger thicker areas like rock slabs, desert, rivers, stuff like that. I would test this out but I have no display board planned at the moment but at some point in the future I will buy some movement trays to see how they are. Feel free to let me know how they are if you own some. Until next time..

The 4 Elements of Battle

2009-03-16T22:02:00.002-04:00

Hey all. I figured I should write about the 4 elements of battle. This has been around for a while now and has some variations so what I'm about to write is my view on it.

Alright so the 4 elements are Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. Also while I will give examples of armies that fit these types that doesn't mean they may not also qualify for other elements. These are just what comes to mind the quickest.

Earth armies are generally armies that are hard to kill or generally are strong on the defensive (ie: gunline). They can sometimes be slow to reposition and tend to favor shooting. Tau, and Chaos Nurgle marines are good examples of an earth army. This does not mean that they are static armies but rather that they are adept at surviving or defending.

Air armies are armies that are fast and/or maneuverable. Able to move fast usually goes hand in hand with maneuverability but it is not necessary (Drop pod Marines for example are not very fast moving but can position well). Dark Eldar, Eldar jetbikes, and ravenwing are examples of this type of army. These armies tend to either be fragile or small in number and so they rely on there ability to move and good positioning to win the battle. These armies can be harder initially to start playing because they usually are more unforgiving then others armies.

Fire armies are armies that are all about raw aggression. Getting in there and getting it done. They tend to be straightforward armies with a clear fighting style. Now while fire armies are typically assault heavy armies they can also be shooting armies as well (ie an aggressive moving tau shooty list could be considered fire). Orks, Khorne beserker marines, Blood Angels, Salamanders (due to there preference for close range firefights) are all good examples of fire armies.

Water armies are those that for one reason or another are more about the battlefield and the enemy your fighting then about there own talents. What I mean by this is a water army is about preemptive planning and having the ability to react to the changes in the game. Water is hard to define really because by the nature of this type of army almost any army can and does play this way. Good examples of water heavy armies are: Grey Knights, Necrons and Dark Angels. Good solid armies but either for lack of numbers or a drastic drawback they cannot just be aggressive like fire or defensive like earth. Also Air armies can tend to play similarly to water but the distinction is air is about the speed and maneuvers while water uses the terrain and its own special abilities to deal with an overwhelming or fast threat.

Well there you have it. My play style tend to be heavy on the waterside with fire tendencies. Feel free to comment with your style of play. While some elements may be harder to initially learn no one element is the strongest amongst them in my opinion. Sometimes you just gotta slam into the enemy to get the job done while others you gotta fall back to win.

Well until next time.

All Your Base... plasticard

2009-03-15T11:56:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone. Since I needed to make bases for my Thousand Sons pre heresy I thought I would show the quick and easy process of how I base them. I do this for them because I want them all to look like there on some sort of stone tiled surface. They don't all match up perfectly which is fine because it gives it a more battle torn feel while still being subdued.
Alright to get to this stage I used the bases and used them to mark the circle's on my plasticard. Thickness is not important you can choose whichever thickness you like. Now after that you just need to cut them out. Keep in mind they are going to be as larger then the base surface which is a good thing.

Alright. I cut them into quarters and then glued them on. Depending how big you want your tile look you can cut them in only halves or a half and two quarters or even not at all to represent them standing in the middle of a large tile. Once the glue was dry I used my clippers to trim them flush with the bases edge and then based them black.

I went for a grey stone look but any color can work even metallic for a metal floor. I just painted a few coats of Astronomicon grey to get this color and that is it. I also painted the sides of the base. The reason I did that is it helps the graveyard earth out for the sides. That is my typical color for trimming the bases.

And here they are. I gave them a second coat of graveyard earth after this photo. I just wanted you to see how the graveyard earth worked after just one coat with the grey underneath it. I do not know if other peoples graveyard earth is really thin but mine always seems to be that way.

Alright so there you have it. Nothing particularly creative or complex. Just a quick way to do a base. Even these simple bases will add more narrative to a model then just leaving them unbased.

Progress report

2009-03-15T01:15:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. Made some painting progress so here we are:

Firstly I tried my and at some actual greenstuff work. Simple scarab symbol for Thousand Sons Rhino hatches. One for each of my rhinos in the list. I did not do too much touch up with regards to finger prints or minor divots because I think it gives this character. The divots for battle worn and the finger prints give it a more scarab look in my opinion. To make scarabs you just have to make the desired scarab circle/oval shape and then with a knife or sculpting tool cut into the greenstuff a "T" with the crossed top of the "T" being the top of the scarab.

The grenade marine with 4 other heavy weapon guys. The Autocannons are heavy weapon team autocannons that I shortened the barrel of. I will use them as heavy bolters.

Another shot of the group. The Autocannons were a bit odd to get on the models only because I did not attempt to make the model in anyway to actually carry it effectively. I think they still get the point across and look decent. What I like about the autocannons is that they can represent heavy bolters, missile launchers or even lascannons as long as they all represent the same thing.

Well that is it for now. Until next time.

Picking an Army

2009-03-14T20:23:00.002-04:00

Hey there all. This post I am going to talk about choosing an army in 40k. This is intended as something for those new to the game as well as those who maybe there army is not working for them or simply still do not have there own army.

There is not much that is more important then picking an army that you will really enjoy playing. Even for those people who want to branch out into multiple armies it is still important. If your not going to enjoy the army as a whole then why bother investing in it and building it up? So how do you choose?

Well firstly the army will probably catch your eye and chances are more then 1 army will catch your eye which is good. Then you can learn more about them Which will let you know there fluff and what not and if you like that you can move on. Now I am all for liking an armies history and fluff and what not. I do that with my armies. But there comes a time in choosing when you have to make your choice based on the armies rules. What do I mean?

Well its broken up into 3 categories: A assaulting heavy force, A shooting heavy force or a mixed force. Generally the mixed force isn't really a category as those forces tend to lean towards either shooting or melee. Now some people have no problem playing either style. But for those that do have preference this is a big factor. Now luckily practically all races can be fielded as either assault or shooting heavy. Even Tau with there Xenos auxilia can beef up there assault ability (though I wouldn't with Tau). Now with that being said most armies have a preference. Blood Angels for example are geared for assault while Necrons are geared for shooting. Both can do the opposite but there lists are set up for what they prefer.

Ok so you may love the fluff but not like there play style what do you do? Well there is a good chance that you will like multiple armies. So in that aspect you can look at the others. I suppose it is possible to like the play style but not the fluff but in this case it is less severe because you can make your own color scheme and have your own chapter or regiment or splinter fleet etc. and not worry really.

Now of course monetary issues may make it difficult to play a certain army. Inquisition is heavy in pewter and expensive or orks are too numerous for your wallet. Those circumstances happen and it is up to the person on what they should do. But for any army building I feel that aside from how the army looks and what not whats really important is if how they play will fit your style.

Tactica Outnumbered to come soon.. as well as other stuff. Until then..

All Your Base... Examples

2009-03-08T12:43:00.004-04:00

Hey all. Since I currently have no bases to work on step by step at the moment for this All your base I figured I would show some examples from a friend of mine. These are all done by my friend at Helios Raven's Nest. He also sent me a blurb about how he did them for me to share with all of you. So lets get started.

This base above was done by using extra bits. He cut them up painted them and then put them on the base. He gave a wash of red ink for more gore. Even without red ink you can still achieve a gore look depending on what reds you use.

This base is a nice example because it is a flying base. Flying bases are clear so many people including myself don't base them. I do not base them really because I never know what to do with there curved surface. What he did was first flocked and painted the base. Then he took pink insulation foam and cut square pillars out of them. He then cut the pillars tops angled to give a crystal appearance. He then painted highlighted and glossed them for a shine. Crystals can be any color so the exact colors do not matter here.

Here is a nice example of base combination. A square type base and a round base to give a small diorama quality to it. For purposes of gaming you could just do all measurements to the beginning of the round base and ignore the square one for purposes of charges or range for weapons. Also you could potentially work the dead terrain feature underneath your model (depending on what it is) to keep it as one base for those really rule oriented gamers. What he did was take a spare marine and a spare skeleton model and fused the two. He then used wires to give the effects of ripped apart armor. Paint and add any blood effect and your done. This could also be done with imperial guard or any race really. The base behind this one was done with pink foam cut randomly to resemble rock. Also some scoring was done for a more eroded feel. It was then based black and dry brushed codex grey and then fortress grey followed by a light touch of white. He added pins to the models feet and pressed them in with glue to secure the model to the foam.

Lastly a ripper swarm base. The nice thing about ripper swarms and other swarm bases from GW is that there is a decent amount of space to allow a simple base job to add narrative. He flocked the base and painted the skeleton model separately. He then attached the skeleton to the base and coated it with red ink. Afterwards he positioned the rippers to appear like they just finished feasting and were moving on. A note here: rippers and scarab swarms are a special case in which you could make a base that would take your eye initially away from the models themselves. That is ok because these bases represent swarms of tiny creatures. It adds a lot to the base regardless of if your eye is not drawn to them directly from the beginning. Sort of like " hey its a dead guy.. oh rippers are coming" type of thing.

So there you go. 4 different examples of bases that are not hard to do and would not take away from the models themselves. More to come in the future of this and other stuff. Until then.

All your Base.... Materials.

2009-03-01T17:07:00.004-05:00

Hey all it is another installment of All your Base. This time I'm talking about materials. Now I'm not talking about what we can buy from games workshop or whomever like the broken up stone, static grass, flock, sand, snow effects etc. This is some random stuff that we can all get easily or already have. At the end ill talk about one or more others not pictured.
Alright a group shot. What we have is an empty sprue that we should all have. The rest is from a chemistry molecule set. It is one of the poorer ones that was going to be thrown out.

These can be used as pipes for cities of death. Aside from terrain you could use clumps of these to represent rocket pods or what not for units that can take missile launchers. They have a variety of uses. One thing to note is that they are harder to get paint and glue to stick too and glue in place. But once you do it looks great.

Alright these guys also have some uses. The fan like things on the bottom can be used to represent turbine blades in rubble. They could also be used for orky bits. Those white pipes are flexible if you need a thick power cord thing that can move or can be used just like the other pipes. Te red thing however can be used to represent mines. Eldar or Tau can do that easily as it looks in line with there tech. But really any race could. Or maybe something to put barbed wire around. Just need to use your imagination.

Lastly the empty sprue. If your in the hobby you have these. You can grind them up for rubble or cut them up to represent iron bars in rubble. Melt them a bit to represent a melta hit somewhere on a building. Twist them to represent stressed metal. They are very handy. Can also be used as orky bits for vehicles.

One thing i did not take a picture of was screening like for windows or screen doors. They can be purchased in large quantities. They come as metal or plastic screening. I recommend the plastic one. It is easier and safer to use. This is what I use for my terminator space hulk basing.

Well I hope that helps spark some ideas for people. There are more things of course that you can use these are just examples. Until next time.

Legends of Wat update

2009-03-01T16:56:00.002-05:00

Hey all. Sorry about the sporadic posts. I am still active just not much real progress worth mentioning. But here we are. A random 40k (Legends of War) update. My First troop choice. Because of the Warboss I took a 5 meganob strong mob as my first troop choice. I call them the Good toof guard because they all have some goldteef. Fluff wise they are the personal guard boyz of my Warboss. Any more meganobz that I may add in the future wont have any gold teef on the gobs.
Group shot of the Goold toof guard. They all have kombi-skorchas because I feel its the best upgrade for them.

A close up of one of my bases with a skull on it. All the bases were done the same way as in the all your base segment. The skull and other bone was done with the same paints and just a white over it and a wash of devlan mud.

Another group shot. The 'ead nob of this squad is the one with 2 gold teef on his gob.

So yea this took priority over my pre heresy thousand sons. But I am back to working on them. I hope to get that army done by the end of this month. Until next time.

All Your Base

2009-02-14T00:02:00.007-05:00

Hello any and all this is the beginning of my basing posts. Before I talk about a simple desert scheme base I wish to discuss what I mean by simple effective bases.

What I mean is that the best is flocked or otherwise appropriately prepared for painting and then either painted or if just static grassed then left alone. That is about it. Just some simple things and paint. What this does is tie the model to its narrative. However there is one rule of basing in my opinion. The more detailed and nicer the base then the model must be that much nicer in general. Why do I think that? Well the point of most bases is to accent the model. If you have a simple painted model on a "pro" base then the base is going to take the eye away from the model and the model then becomes the accent. That works for certain advanced things like camo models but that is not what im talking about.

Alright my first installment is this Meganob. He will be done in a desert scheme. There are 2 reasons I started with this model. First it was what I was working on and second its between a slotted and unslotted model. Meganobz and models like that (terminator chaplain etc) are pegged. I usually like to do these models by first gluing them to the base then basing the model. I will show an exception when i eventually rebase my terminator chaplain. Also this is a nice neutral basing theme that works with any army scheme really. So here we go:

Firstly this is the meganob (sneak peak for the legends of war event). Painted to my ork scheme but on this blank base it looses its narrative.

Ok so this is the basic start for many bases. I added some flock and some rock bits. The rock bits are optional but can add some 3d to the base which can be nice. Be sure to give it ample time to dry and then gently tap off the excess prior to painting.

For earthen toned bases you do not need to base it black. You could but its just an extra step. I based it with bestial brown but any dark brown would work here.

After I let the bestial brown dry i liberally dry brushed the base with bubonic brown. Alternatively a khaki or dirty yellow can work. The point is to set up for the final layer without covering the base coat.

Alright so here is where we wrap it up. The final color is bleached bone dry brushed only on the areas of bubonic brown without covering all of it. After that I painted the sides of the base with graveyard earth to give it a clean look. Any color can work here some people use different colors to mark squads. Other do the color of the armies armor color. I like to choose a color not associate with the model and preferably not the base. Now you could add some patches of static grass here I just chose not to.

You might notice some bits of flock stuck to the model. They are not glued there. Thatll happen when you flock a base with a model on it. You can blow them off or pick them off I don't bother. They will fall off in transport and in game play. They are not overtly obvious and if they are you can just brush them off.

Well next installment will be at some point along with the next outnumbered. until then.

Small update

2009-02-07T18:26:00.003-05:00

Hey all here is a small update:

A tactical marine for my crusade era thousand sons. The chestplate is from the redscorpions upgrade sprue. I have 4 others nearly done I plan to do something special for the heavy weapons and when I do ill post about it. Currently I am working on the Mega Nobz.

Ill use the first mega nob when completed to start a new tips and tactics segment of basing. Basically my thoughts on basing and how to do simple basing that wont take away from the model and will give a nice feel to it as well. Until then I will do my next segment of Outnumbered soon. Until then.

Outnumbered! Codex Space Marine Bike Armies.

2009-01-25T02:12:00.002-05:00

Keeper of the Fortress

Welcome to the next installment of Outnumbered! This time we are looking at the Space Marine Codex Bike armies. Its a different enough army compared to Ravenwing to get its own entry.

This is your White Scar and equivalent armies. What I mean by a biker army is of course biker troops and commander. And the rest of the army is other bikes and landspeeders. That's about it. I will get into a bit more detail about some tactica with these armies.

Alright so firstly you need to know your wargear. I am not going to give out much detail on stats or what not. Buy the codex and learn it if you want to run this army. This is true for any army you may play. Know your wargear. Some pointers for bikers. twin linked bolters on the bikes. Bikes confer the relentless rule so plasmagunners or attack bikers can still shoot at full range.

Alright so Firstly with these armies is HQ. Any HQ can go on a bike but the mandatory one you need for this army is a Captain on a bike. He of course makes Space Marine Bikers a troop choice. Now with this codex the bikers have to be atleast 5 man strong to be a troop choice. For the rest of the HQ choices can also go on bikes. But if you want a nice support biker I would suggest either a Master of the Forge on a bike or a Librarian on a bike. A biker with conversion beamer can help this army out with long range anti-tank. Also a Biking Librarian is relentless so Vortex of doom can be cast after moving and the other abilities are nice. Also command squads can be put on bikes should you wish.

Ok so after HQ is troops. Bikers squads are your troops of atleast 5 or larger. I would always give the sergeant a powerfist as he replaces his bolt pistol for a melee weapon. These units however are not meant for the assault really. There space marines yes and with a higher toughness but anytime you charge into cover you need to roll dangerous terrain. Also there strengths are in the shooting. The ability to shoot your twinlinked bolters full range or plasmagun full range makes it a fast mid range shooting squad. If you move then shoot that give you range on things 36 inches away before you moved.

Alright after troops you should supplement your army with fast attack choices. You have Land Speeders, Attack Bikers or Scout bikers. The scout biker squad is an interesting option should they fit into your play style. Most people go with attack bike squads equipped with multi meltas. This is a good option to deal with vehicles and monstrous creatures. Others go with land speeders which are also good. The assault cannon configuration is still good but the changes to defensive weapons and rending made this configuration less popular lately. My favorite from this codex is the missile launcher land speeder. It shoots twice with a missile launchers stats. This is good for longer range anti vehicle but it really shines in dealing with hordes. Fire 3 frag missiles with the heavy bolter into a ork horde or gaunt brood and just thin them out.

So that is what the army contains. But now its time to talk about the one special character that matters for this army for a moment. Korsarro Khan. He can be put on his special bike and lead a biker army. He is from the White Scars but you could easily counts as him with your own army. He has a special ruling for his power sword and for his bikes. His other rule gives him furious charge and hit and run that is conferred to a squad he joins. His Chapter Tactic give the army outflank. This makes the army highly mobile coming in from the sides. He is a good hq option but do not be afraid to make your own HQ captain. You can make a captain with better saves and a str 6 weapon for 5 to 10 points more. So it depends on what you want your army to do. Naturally if you want to outflank you should use the Khan.

Now these biker armies are difficult to play. You are a very fast mobile army that your speed can work against you if you get to split up. What you do depends on what your fighting but generally you should maximize your shooting and assault things that out shoot you like Tau or things that shoot high str weapons like Lootas. Remember your going to be outnumbered more so then normal marines. The good thing though is that units like attack bikes can quickly make there points back by killing vehicles.

To review. Do not let your speed fragment your battle line. Since you are a fast small army you can spearhead into specific spots of the enemy so that your enter army can hit parts of the enemy.

So that is about it. I will go into more detail on biker armies with the Ravenwing so we don't have to read the same thing twice. I touched the parts that are different here. When I discuss Ravenwing and how they differ the tactics for both will be flushed out some more.

Until then the key thing to know for any army is to have your codex for that army and have it with you when you play a game. Also know your wargear or rather at least know the key wargear (example: bolt gun, missile launcher, heavy bolter for marines). The more you know about your army the better you can think about how to play them. Until next time.

And it's name was Apollo

2009-01-22T21:25:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone. Just thought I would make a little update post. Still working on finishing a tactical marine for crusade Thousand Sons. Once that is done ill work on my Orks for the Random 40k challenge and share them as I go.

However my last post I stated I had another project that I did not mention. Here is one image:

And it's name was Apollo.... Yep I decided to treat myself. Its a Mars Pattern Warhound. This is going to be a long term side project. I have plans for it but for now you will only know its name.. Apollo. When I do make progress with it I will let you know and talk about building it. Giving tips as I go. I will hopefully be having help myself. Well that is it for now.

Do not worry I will do the next installment of Outnumbered! soon. Other stuff to come as well.

Gotta love fearless

2009-01-17T12:25:00.003-05:00

Hey all. This will be a minor update on whats is going on on my end followed by my views on Fearless.

Firstly the updates. Still working on my Pre heresy Thousand Sons I am trying to fill out the tactical squads and will post progress as I make them. I have plans for my Angels of Fury but they are taking a second seat as of now because the local game store is doing a Heresy era type thing in the summer and I want to make sure I get my Thousand Sons done. I got two other home made chapters on the drawing board; The Iron Ravens and Bone Scorpions. Once i get model done for them I will post more on them. I also have plans for other official space marine chapters and to expand my Dark Angels. My Goal for the Dark Angels is a full 5th battle company, full Deathwing company and full Ravenwing company. Anyways I also got some other stuff that I wont spoil including a huge side project. More on that later.

The Legends of War Event (aka the random army thing my friends and I are doing.) We started part 2 which is to build just one troop choice squad. Rules are that no transports are allowed yet and they must be fully based and painted. So if you remember I was doing Orks. I used a counts as Ghazkull for Grax Dakka Goldteef. He needs some big mean Orks and since he is a warboss I can do that. So for my first troop choice im going with 5 meganobz with kombi-scorchas. They will be called the goldtoof guard. I haven't started them yet but I have the models so they will take priority after I finish up some painting I started. I will post progress of them as well.

Alright that was a bit long now onto the heart of the matter. The Special Rule Fearless. Now I know the new kid on the block is Stubborn because it has changed from the prior edition and is really good. I will talk on Stubborn another time.

We all know fearless. Automatically pass morale and pinning checks and you never fall back. Also if the unit somehow becomes fearless they autoregroup regardless of size. Sounds great!.. and it is great. However the downside comes to close combat. If a fearless unit loses close combat they don't roll morale they stay in but take a number of armor saves equal to the number of unsaved wounds they lost by. Now this itself is also a blessing. If you can survive losing the combat and the extra saves you keep a unit tied up in close combat which has many advantages like blocking line of sight keeping that unit tied down etc.

Now while that sounds like a harsh drawback it really isnt. Here is why the vast majority of fearless units have a small squad size. Greyknights are kept small due to point cost, Deathwing and Ravenwing are small squads. Deathcompany is small. Why does this matter? Well lets look at deathwing. They are 5 man terminator squads that are fearless. If they lose close combat chances are they are either wiped already or took a small amount of casualties. Even if you lost the other 4 chances are you will make those saves. This is relying on good rolls but you get the point. a 5 man squad cannot lose close combat by a large amount of unsaved wounds.

Now I know there are Ork players wondering how this helps there horde. Well yes it does stink for those large Ork squads and I am sure ill feel its effects with my Orks once I get the army built. But I Will not worry about it. Firstly the ork boyz be they shoot or slugga go up to 30 models and its not impractical to field a few squads that size. Also they are both fine in close combat especially if they charge. Lastly its fluffy for orks to die in large numbers. Now the latter only applies to people who actually care about fluff. I happen to care about it so I like that fact. In the case of Ork hordes it comes down to the player being smart. For example you may be a 30 sluga boy strong unit with many attacks but do not let them steal the charge. Also do not go after the opposing armies specialist assault forces with your troop choice. That is what nobz and the hq are for. What should you not assault or let assault your large fearless troop choice? Here is a rough list: berserkers, assault marines, vanguard marines, assault terminators (maybe), grey knight terminators, Striking scorpions, Death company, Genestealers and arco flags to name some off the top of my head. Now does this list mean never? No of course not just be careful because they are assault oriented and can mess up your ork boy mob without counting the possible hq attached to it. You cannot complain if you let the assault oriented elite or fast attack choice with many attacks get your squad and proceed to wipe them out because that is the nature of the game anyway.

So are large ork mobs useless? Not at all. Lets face it there saves in general are terrible and objectives are important. IF you can get a 20 or larger ork boy squad with shootas on a objective in cover that is one tough squad to remove from the objective.

Oh and do not forget the last part about if the unit becomes fearless it auto regroups. The only army I can think of that can do this regularly are witch hunter sisters of battle with faith. if your faithful model in your squad is still alive you can regroup your retreating small unit to contest or even take an objective.

Bottom line in my opinion is Fearless is very powerful and as such has a drawback that hurts. Do not forget that independent characters lose this rule if they join a non fearless unit (Chaplains are an exception of this. There may be others I just cannot think of any). If you keep in mind the pro's and cons of this or any rule you can use it better. It also comes down to of course knowing your army. Also there are some special abilities in the some armies that force a moral check regardless of fearless or not. I did not touch on that because that is army specific I just wanted to talk about fearless in general.

That was longer then expected. Again I am stating things that many people know already but I feel it is good to get it out into the open. Coming soon is the next installment of Outnumbered! plus other progress reports and some tutorials in the future. Until then.

Teleportation Successful

2009-01-03T18:05:00.003-05:00

Hey all hope the new year went well. I got some painting done. I decided to paint the snap terminators from the Black Reach box for my deathwing. So here they are

There nothing fancy. What I did do different with this batch is i used a foundation paint brown instead of my normal graveyard earth undercoat for the armor. The Deathwing decals are from the vehicle transfers..

A little rant on the deathwing transfer. Games Workshop really needs to make a new decal sheet with these on it. The Deathwing symbol only is available on a vehicle sheet and there is only one on it. It is not like these are an obscure decal or something. But its all good as they did make terminator pads for the deathwing.

Well enjoy.. Until next time.

Outnumbered! Grey Knights

2008-12-27T19:34:00.004-05:00

Keeper of the Fortress

Alright everyone. This next installment of Outnumbered! is about The Daemonhunters codex specifically a Grey Knights army. Now I'm not talking about a radical army with daemonhosts and I'm not talking about inquisitorial armies with some grey knights in it. I mean pure Grey Knights (including dreadnoughts and Landraiders). I wont go into any fluff detail really but these guys are the elite of the elite. They fight Daemons and even though they are in desperate need of an update they are still rather good at it.

If you haven't seen many or any armies of these guys do not be surprised. They are like the Witchhunters in that the kits made for these armies are entirely metal. Pricey, heavy and in my opinion annoying to work with. I am not going to talk about the rumors of a new codex for the inquisition or anything in this either.

The Grey Knights are great I am a huge fan of them and if they get plastic models in the future I will make an army of them in a heart beat. I will do a little post about my views on metal models later on.

So onto the heart of the matter. Grey Knights have special rules including fearless, true grit for there storm bolters, and essentially a psychic hood type rule. They have other rules some of which do not matter anymore and regardless I wont be going into detail about the special rules but I will mention the ones I said.

Fearless: Being they are a small army with squad sizes that on average will be small (even though they can have average squad size) the fearless rule is great. The last thing you want to do is fail a leadership check due to shooting or something at range nor do you want to be pinned.

True Grit: its only special here because its for storm bolters and not bolters. All Grey Knights have the Storm bolter as there standard weapon which is great. True grit lets them be dangerous after the charge by giving them an extra attack each. This is handy because the Grey Knights are good assaulters.

The Aegis: This is the psychic hood like rule. Basically works the same. can resist a psychic power by rolling a d6 and adding leadership. You can also have a psychic hood in your army so you have to choose which you will use. You cannot use both. A nice little rule here.

Oh and one more important rule. The Shrouding: Its essentially a weaker version of night fight for Grey Knights. You roll 3d6 time 3 to see if you can see them squad for purposes of targeting them to shoot at. If your in a night fight scenario the night fight rules overrule this. This rule is great. As you are a small force this can be of help. It is 3d6 but still that hurts weapons with long ranges. Granted your troops effective range as a whole is 24 but this can let you close range unmolested on foot for a bit or lets you sit on an objective and force them to get close to be able to shoot you.

Alright so what are the strengths of these units then? Well aside from the special rules these units are strong in the assault. True Grit, Fearless (Which is a good special rule especially for smaller units) are part of their assault specialty. There troops are weapon skill 5 and there Close combat weapon (The Nemesis Force weapon) adds 2 to there space marine strength. So strength 6 for everyone with the weapon. This is what allows them to eek it out against larger units. They are super Space Marines essentially. They are also good at range which I will get to momentarily.

Nemesis Force Weapons: Firstly they are not Force Weapons. Only the Grandmasters counts as a force weapon. These weapons tap into the fluff of the grey knights. basically the weapon gets better in higher ranking hands. basic troops just add 2 to strength. Justicars (Vet sergeants) Terminators and Brother Captains add 2 to there strength and its a power weapon. Grand Masters have a +2 to strength force weapon.

Range combat. Grey Knights are no slouches at this either. With a Stormbolter as standard weaponry they can chew into lightly armored infantry. They can do what Deathwing shooting armies do which is to goad the enemy closer. Basically you move to get your storm bolters in range and fire. Either they stand still and fire once or try and get closer to rapid fire or get into assault. Then your next turn you move away and keep 24 inches and fire again. You basically lead assault armies where you want and this can frustrate the shooty opponents to reposition themselves. It takes some practice but this style of shooting is key. Now there troop squad can have 2 models exchange there weapons for a psycannon or incinerator. Now these are good weapons but you have to think about how you are going to play. Remember these models no longer have a nemesis weapon. The incinerator is a heavy flamer that also ignores invulnerability saves. This is a nice weapon against daemons. It also is great in 5th where cover became so much more important and easy to get. With strength 5 it means youll be wounding more often. The psycannon is an auto cannon can be fired while moving up to 18" or if you do not move it can fire 36". Now it fires 3 time either way but its strength is 6 as opposed to 7 for normal auto cannons. its ap is the same. This weapon also ignore invulnerability saves. I would suggest one squad have incinerators and that squad to be put in a land raider. Ill explain more later on.

So how outnumbered are these guys? Well the basic Grey Knight costs 25 points per model. And the Grey Knight Squad must have a Justicar which is 50 points and at least 4 Grey Knights. So 150 points for 5 guys at least. Keep in mind if you want grenades they cost extra. Also Justicars have access to war gear which could increase the point cost. (I wont go into there wargear. They have a decent amount and what you pick is up to you and your armies style). I will say this it appears Justicars can take targeters. I haven't found anything to refute this so that can be a big help to make sure you'll always be in range.

So for troops how large a squad? Well 5 is too small really. I think 8 man squads are a safe size. You can put 1 or two weapon upgrades per squad and be alright. These squads will cost about as much as Deathwing squads (around 250 points with upgrades). Now these troop choices can be fielded as a fast attack choice. If you do they are kept in reserve and teleport in just like terminators via deep strike. This could be an interesting tactic to think about if you had the points.

What about HQ? Well as we are talking about pure Greyknights that limits you to a Brother Captain or Grand Master. The Grand Master is more then double the brother captains points but he has 3 wounds where the brother captain only has 1. The Grand master has 4 attacks as well as opposed to 3. So who to go for? Well I like having my HQ with more then 1 wound so I personally would bite the bullet and go with a Grand Master. However I have seen viable lists with Brother Captain as an HQ just have to be careful especially if you dump upgrades on him. Now they are only in Terminator Armor and nothing else so I would always take a Land Raider Crusader to put them in. There weapons strike at initiative and are strength 6 that ignore armor saves. You want that striking at there initiative. Now both HQ units can have a retinue of Grey Knight Terminators. Here is where I suggest you get your terminator squad. Just add 4 terminators to the HQ and you have your terminator squad without taking an elite choice up. One thing to point out with Terminator squads in general with Grey Knights is that they can take a psychic power called Holocaust. These uses the ordnance template ( which should be the large template) which can be placed anywhere in contact with the Brother captain or Grand Master as they are focal point. Anyone friend or foe touched takes a str 5 hit normal saves allowed at I 1. This is done in assault phase. It doesn't say anywhere that it takes up his attacks so he can do this in addition to attacking normally. I suggest taking this upgrade as this can really help your squad out. with 2+ saves you will be pretty safe and this can help trim down large horde units. This ability can allow you to assault very large units and come out on top. It does require a psychic test. Also 1 terminator can upgrade there stormbolter to a incinerator or psycannon I would suggest the psycannon because they can always fire the heavy 3 option 36" range one because they have relentless due to the armor.

Now there are two other units for pure Grey Knights. There Dreadnought (Which is a heavy support choice for them) and The Purgation squad which is like a devastator squad. If you go with a dreadnought I would field it with a Lascannon and its CCW. The psycannon is a nice option for it but the army lacks long range anti tank punch so the twin linked Lascannon is in my opinion better.

The purgation squad is an interesting squad. it can be as small as 3 models. They are like devastators in that they can exchange there weapons for others. up to 4 grey knights can exchange there weapons for Psycannons or Incinerators. This unit I like but I do not know if I would field one. Its points heavy but can be really effective. With 4 psycannons you can lay down good covering fire and still move and shoot it if necessary. With 4 incinerators you can potentially wipe even space marine squads if they are bunched up. If you try them out Do not mix the weapons. I mean you could and that could work on a highly mobile unit but keeping it purely one or the other will maximize the weapons.

So what do you do? Well I suggest regardless of what HQ you take a 4 terminator retinue. Now take 2 squads of 8 Grey Knights for troop choices. Now take 2 Land Raiders one of which is a Crusader and give them smoke. This small force will run you just about 1500 points. Now this is a viable force its just much harder to use. You could drop a land Raider for another troop choice but if you do I would suggest dropping the crusader because you need those Lascannons to deal with armor. I personally would field both Land Raiders.

You would play this force conservatively with your HQ squad in or near the crusader and the incinerator squad in or near the land raider. Always move your forces. Depending on the mission keep the psycannon equipped unit on an objective or in cover near one and give cover fire. But dont be afraid to move them back if need be. Keep the Land Raiders near the Grey Knights so in a pinch you can mount up and drive away or towards an objective. In this style of play the Land Raiders also need to shoot as much as possible especially the regular land raider. That is your only source of long range anti vehicle. The key here is really to maximize your shooting and to wipe whole squads out. The assault phase is where the Knights excel but you should not rush there. This is of course not set in stone. For example against Tau you should still shoot a lot but while trying to get into assault as they out range and can quickly outgun your small force due to less targets for marker lights.

Now 1750 is becoming very popular so in this case i would add a 3rd troop squad. If you did this in 1500 then i would add the second land raider now.

This is my view on a pure Grey Knights force. Its small but if you maximize shooting and make full use of all there gear you will be able to overcome your very small size. I would say that the Grey Knights are probably one of the smallest forces you can field aside from deathwing. And I would say these two armies are essentially tied for smallest army as depending on how you build them one would be slightly smaller then the other.

Up next in this series will probably be Codex Space Marines Bike armies as they are different enough from Ravenwing to warrant some attention.

Quest for Knowledge

2008-12-19T21:01:00.002-05:00

Greetings. I had these guys done for almost a week now just have not had time to post them. Ok sorry in advance for the poor pic quality. I will eventually get a better picture taking place then my work area. SO here it is my Mechanicus Battlefleet Gothic Exploratory fleet.

I have one more of these types of escorts but its base is broken and I still have the escorts I did a while back. But this is the Mechanicus fleet essentially. Nothing fancy just grey red and bronze. I think it turned out well. Probably the fastest army type group that I've painted. A BFG fleet can look really good with minimal effort. Enjoy.

Outnumbered! Cult Chaos Marines

2008-12-13T17:08:00.007-05:00

Hey all. I could not make it to a local gaming shop for a tournament so thought id do Outnumbered! Chaos cult marines now. NOTE im not going to actually go into the fluff of each legion talked about here. There fluff explains why they have certai nstats and certain limitations.

What do I mea nbut Cult armies? Well what i mean when i say that is an army devoted solely to one god and to me in order to be a "true" cult army you need to use there specific special troop choice and not just a chaos marine squad with an icon. So basically: Noise Marines, Plague Marines, Beserkers or Thousand Sons Rubric Marines. Essentially an army devoted to one of the cult legions. The army is as much a fluff army as it is specialized. So no Sorcerer with lash in a Khorne Army. Also other infantry units tend to be given the icon of that god as well. Basically the army is built to fit the fluff of that legion.

So the legions are for those of you that may not know are: Emperor's Children (devoted to Slaanesh). Deaht Guard (Devoted to Nurgle), World Eaters, Devoted to Khorne and Thousand Sons (Devoted to Tzeentch). So a cult army would pick a legion and the appropriate troop choice for that army. The question to ask now before you make your list is to go with Favored number or not.

Favored Number you say? Each God has a sacred number and they are: 6 for Slaanesh, 7 for Nurgle, 8 for Khorne and 9 for Thousand Sons. Now there is no benefit for going favored number anymore aside from being fluffy. So do you do it or not? I say it depends obviously 6 man squads are a bit on the small side. However you can also do multiples ( ie. 6 or 12 for Slaanesh) this can keep the theme of favored numbers alive for slaanesh and keep your units alive. This can become expensive however.

Ok so what do you do for an HQ? Well that is up to you. You could make it really cult like and field the appropriate special character or a generic HQ option with appropriate mark. This is up to the player. Id go wit ha special character just because I think it helps give the feel of a cult legion.

Ok a few overall pointers. These armies are specialized and with all the icons and potential upgrades being bought it can quickly become a small army. Be careful. Noise Marines do not al needsonic weapons for example (although it is cool). The troops are expensive but are general superior in one way to normal chaos marines (T5 on plague marines for example). Also all your troops are fearless remember that. This is a good thing as it keeps your dice rolling down a bit. As we all know even with Ld 10 after enoug hdie rolls we fail them eventually. Alright now it is time to get to the heart of the matter. NOTE all cult troops except for Thousand Sons can upgrade to have a champion for +15. Thousand Sons are different and ill explain in there section.

Emperor's Children: These guys are devoted to Slaanesh and as such there troops are Noise Marines. Favore number is 6. These troops are the cheapest starting out of the cult troop choices. They can quickly become one of the most expensive. Every unit can upgrade there weapon to a sonic weapon of some kind. at 20 point base with the basic sonic weapon upgrade being 5 point that means 25 points a model minimum. The other sonic wepaon cost 40 points and is for one marine only. So what are these guys good at? Well two things. One is they have initiative 5 which means they strike first against most other troops and even elites of most armies. This means that while not assault specialists they can recieve charges better then regular chaos marines and are better at charging. With there sonic weapons they are the ebst foot sloggers in this codex as the weapons are all assault weapons. Essentially a squad of storm bolters plus the basic one can be assault 2 or heavy 3. The other one has two profiles one that is an assault weapon the other is heavy. So you can Rhino push and still have decent small arms fire which is really good. You can also walk them foward and back keepign the enemy in range all the while. If you dont move you can really put the hurt on light infantry with heavy 3 shots per basic sonic weapon depending o nsquad size you can potentially wope out decent size units. So do you favored number them? My opinion is have one or two units of 12 with full sonic weapon upgrades and kit out your champion for assault and give them rhinos. Any other squads upgrade as your discretion. With two units of 12 with full sonic weapons you can whittle down horde armies rather well. This army while having high initiative is more shooty so supplement your noise marines with some anti tank punch. Shoot a lot and then steal the assault with your I5 guys. This armies weakness is all the upgrades. each marine troop choice that falls is 25 points a model if with sonci weapons. All the basic anti marine weakenss apply here as well (massed small arms fire etc etc).

Death Guard. These guys are devoted to Papa Nurgle. Favored number is 7. I think 7 is safe for these guys but if you dont want to be limited by favored number then nothing over 10 unless its an apocalypse game. These guys have toughness of 5 and feel no pain. This is huge making them have high staying power. They are tied in first for best staying power troop choice in the chaos codex. Tied with Rubric Marines (ill explain in there section). Now in 4th they were the king of staying in the chaos codex but with the changes to feel no pain they are a little bit weaker. These guys weigh in at 23 points a model. the champion can get the usual weapon upgrades. What is nice to note is they have in addiotn to frag and krak grenades the blight grenade. This is a defensive grenade and it helps them deal with ther weakness which ill explain later. Now the unit can have two marines upgrade there bolter to a special weapon (melta plasma etc) but not heavy weapons. This isgood because you can move and shoot everything albiet at a reduced range. But you can have two melta guns plus the combi melta power fist champion can make a mean anti tank squad. Combine that wiht a rhino with combi melta and you got an anti tank unit that can move. This can be done with plasma of a flamer as well. So you can have a anti terminator plasma squad and an anti horde flamer squad. Feel no pain works with gets hot so you have a bit more staying power with that. These guys are great at sitting on objectives. In cover these guys are hard to get rid of and being fearless they wont run. put in a rhino they can rush an enemy objective and with there higher toughness they can contest for longer. I would back up these troops with nurgle bikers. Toughness 6 bikes is nothing to laugh at. the Nurlge Icon is one of the better all purpose ones. T5 havocs to give some long range punch to the army for example. This is an army that can deal with massed small arms fire better then any other chaos army. This armies weakness is that plague marines are I3. Now there blight grenades help with this and of course T5 also helps with this but should a large asault army or unit hit you guys T5 and feel no pain can only help for so long. Also it is imporant to keep in mind feel no pain. Doublt strength power weapns and ap 2 or 1 (and str d in apoc), and rending will bypass your feel no pain. this means that rending wounds and plasma wound which used to not bypass I believe will now bypass. This is critical with armies that have the ability to get ap1 like Witch Hunters with that faith power. This isnt a critical weakness as its built into the rule that they have but it is important to remember. As you will be outnumbered by even regular chaos armies. However they can soak up str 4 and lower weapons better then other troops.

World Eaters. These guys are devoted to Khorne. There favored number is 8. While I would run a squad or two with the favored number I would suggest going 10 man for more attacks in close combat. THey are 21 points a model. These guys are close combat monsters. WS of 5 Furious Charge and base 2 attacks in there profile means many attacks and on the carge they hit harder and go before other marines and at the same time as noise marines. Keep in mind they have a pistol and close combat weapon so on the charge thats is 4 attacks a model (5 for the champion unless he has a powerfist then he has 4). So a squad of 10 wit ha champion with a powrfist has a total of 40 attacks on the charge at I5 str5. Thats huge especially againt horde armies. Remember that the powrfists are str 9 on the charge not 10. Back these guys up with some khorne raptors for fast hits or with defilers to give long range shooting with there cannon. What I would do is take Land Raiders. Armor 14 with lascannons and being an asault vehicle will get your beserkers into the fray fast. Every Beserker squad should have a transport either rhino or Land Raider. This armies Weakness is that they are devoted solely to assaulting. The troop choice only has pistols for shoting. You can give plasma pistols and I would give 1 per squad at most if at all. You have to be careful if you shoot your pistols and the unit runs at the end of the phase your unit is high and dry and will be shot to bits. Backing these troops up with transports and things that can shoot farther (Land Raiders, Defilers even predators) is critical. This style of army is harder then people think. You cannot just run foward without a plan. Being able to maximize your assaulting while utilizing shooting attacks is a delicate balancing act.

Thousand Sons. These guys are devoted to Tzeentch. There favored number is 9. I wouldnt field them in units larger then 9. Thats what you get in there box, 1 aspiring sorcere and 8 marines. By the way I dunno if this box will get an update but it needs one baaaad. Plastic tech has gotten better and im sure they could easily make these guys all plastic which would be much better then the hybrid plastic pewter they are now. Anways these guys weigh in at 23 points a model. While this is the same as plague marines these squads are probably the most expensive before upgrades. This is because unlike the rest of the troop choices they dont get a champion. They have an aspiring sorcerer that is required and costs 60 points. Also it must take 1 psychic power. These squad have a 4+ invulnerable save which is great as it makes them one of the best foot sloggers. They are Slow and purposeful which makes them relentless but slow when moving. This iswhy they arent the best foot sloggers hand down but are still really good. Keep in ind the aspiring sorcere is not slow and purposeful so if he is the last one left he can move normally. They also have inferno bolts. These make there bolters ap3 which is great against Marines and Marine like armies. This however doesnt do much againt horde armies that are used to not having asave against normal bolters. This being said we all know there are plenty of marine armies and other Marine like armies. They cannot take any upgrades and have no grenades. This is ok though because the aspiring sorcerer has a psychic power. I would suggest either doombolt or Bolt of Change. They are in my mind the best powers to give your aspiring sorcerers. Doombolt is good for increasing the number of shots and can help against horde armies. Bolt of Change is one attack at the same range as a bolter at str 8 and ap of 1 and it is an assault weapon. This is good because it allows the squad to be more versatile by allowing your sorcere to destroy vehicles. Gift of Chaos and Winds of Chaos are also good options if you wish. This is a shooting army that can walk itself across the board all the while firing there bolters at max range and denying armor save to all but 2+. With the amount of cover saves available now I would be careful and keep my distance while still shooting. They are equal to plague Marines in staying power because of there invulnerable save. Sure small arms fire hurts them just the same as normal marines but they can take a demolisher cannon and keep on coming. This is why i think they are equal because as troops are so important in fifth people will throw heavy weapons against them. The assault phase is there wekaness but they are not helpess. The sorcerer has a force weapon and the squad has a invulnerable save. This armies wekaness is that while they are good at footsloggin they are slow if you roll poorly for slow and purposeful. On average theyll move 4 inches a turn so they are slow. If you lock them in assault you can wither them down as only the sorcerer has a weapon that ignores armor. Do not count them out though as they do have a marine stat line so they can hold there own in the assault. Also another wekaness is there special rule of the sorcerer commands. This essentially means that if the aspiring sorcerer is killed the squad then only rolls 1d6 as opposed to 2d6.

Alright to wrap up ill talk briefly on the daemon weapons and steeds. The daemosn weapons vary for each god. Slaanesh causes instant death, khorne rolls 2d6 for extra attacks, nurgle always wounds on a 4+ and tzeentch rolls 1d6 for shooting and for assault. They all have there risks for if you roll a 1 you do nothing and take a wound. Khorne and Tzeetnch have the highest risks but also can do more damage. They count as power weapons. They are not essential for a lord and should only be considered if you plan to be able to use them. ALso only Chaos Lords can take them.

The Steeds are alright. I am not goign to go into them as the only one i really seen used was the disc of tzeentch which lets you move as jump infantry. They all have there uses but for this tacical read they do not change anything for being outnumbered. They can be used by Lords and Sorcerers.

Thats about it for a overview of cult armies and being outnumbered. Remember this is my opinion on the matter and the strengths and weaknesses are as I see them. In knowning these things you can develop lists and strategies for your armies.

I am not sure what I am going to talk on next. So ill keep it a secret. Until then I hope this helped.

Tactica outnumbered!

2008-12-11T22:49:00.003-05:00

Keeper of the Fortress

Alright folks Another installment of my opinions on matters concerning tips and tactics. This installment is on being outnumbered. Now if you play horde or just large armies you can still read but this is meant for those of use who are outnumbered on a regular basis.

Now starting off people view being outnumbered as a weakness inherent in the armies that comprise this (Grey Knights, Chaos Thousand Sons, Deathwing, Ravenwing etc etc). Now while this is indeed a drawback this can also be considered a strength.

Know your Strengths

-Being small can be of help. If you win the dice roll have your opponent set up to go first. Then you set up your smaller army to be able to attack a smaller portion of the larger enemy. Of course the enemy may try to redeploy via movement but anything that makes your opponent do something they may not want to is an advantage in my eyes. Make no mistake though being outnumbered is still a fundamental drawback of these armies. Les bodies to capture and less bodies that can fall.

-Deployment is Key. As mentioned above you could make your opponent go first in turn and deployment but in the cases where you either want to go first or are made to go first. Deploying your forces effectively is always key and more so when your outnumbered.

- Play to your armies strength. This is obvious. Chaos Thousand Sons are good at shooting so maximize that. I am of the mind that unless your typical shooting range is pistols like Beserkers you should maximize your shooting. This will vary depending on how you build deathwing for example as you could have an assault heavy force or shooting heavy. This is 40k battles in the future I always say use your guns when you can. Again if your main gun is a pistol then you have to play smart to get in and assault.

-Play to the mission. Annihilation aside there are objectives to capture. Do not forget this. Its something that even veteran players can do. You get caught up in the slaughter or are just enjoying the fighting and before you know it your either too outstretched or too weakened to take objectives. NOTE: Necrons have a built in secondary objective of phase out. Sometimes going for the phase out could be better then going for objectives. Now this depends on the enemy Necron force and your own as well as the mission. Now in Annihilate the gloves are off and just make sure to utterly destroy a unit before moving to the next so you get that point.

-Don't let your opponent get into your head. What this means is that against a tyranid swarm or Ork horde army id you look upon the enemy and say "I can't kill all that" you really are weakening yourself before the game starts. You'll be more cautious. The mind war is just as important at the luck of the dice roll. If you can make your opponent wonder why our so confident you have a higher chance of them slipping up.

-Be bold. Remember tactics never truly make it to the battle. Id you can confuse or surprise your opponent in a manner that benefits you that always helps.

I know this is all old hat to many of us but any one of us can forget these overtime or just not apply it because we are too busy thinking of other things in the game.

Know your weakness and make them your Strength

Basically if your army is weak in the assault then use that to your advantage. Aggressive shooting and smart target prioritizing can keep that assault heavy force your facing back for one more crucial turn. While it would be nice to be able to shoot down the assaulting horde before it gets to you it rarely happens. But the more shooting you get in the better.

-Sacrifice. We all know to be prepared for casualties. but sometimes sacrifice is in order.Speed bumps are less around in small armies but a transport or a whittled down squad can be used in that role. Now its not the best idea for small armies like this but if it give the rest of your army an extra hassle free turn then go for it.

Now I'm not going to go into army specific tactics here but maneuvering your army is critical. Also read up on your armies rules. For example a Thousand sons squad in a rhino is pretty nice. Give them essentially a 36" shot by moving twelve getting out and then shooting as they are relentless via slow and purposeful (last i checked that works anyway). Basically all armies have either special rulings or there own unique strengths that have to be exploited constantly.

So essentially my point of view is that unless your assault specialized only (like World Eaters) you should shoot as much as possible. My reasoning for this is that most horde style armies have bad armor saves. And even with all the cover saves now you can negate there armor with your guns. In assault you'll have usually 1 guy that can negate armor saves consistently. Now granted a 6+ is nothing but lucky dice rolls can really hamper you. Deathwing is the exception as regardless of what you give them its a power weapon. However with Deathwing they are small squads and one of the smaller armies so you have to be careful.

One final tip is don't be afraid to spend points on things if it will enhance your armies ability. With Beserkers for example they are great in the assault. And while Rhinos really help them get across the board you may want to invest in a Land Raider. Better survivability, can assault out of it and it has some heavy weaponry if it survives dropping the beserkers off. Also it'll draw fire away from the rest of your army.

Thats about it. Mostly just a reminder on things we all forget. This is just the beginning. I plan to go into detail in other installments which are based on a specific codex for each installment of: Outnumbered! So stay tuned. I think the first will be Chaos cult armies. That means for those that don't know armies that are dedicated to one chaos god and at least in my eyes the troop selections should only consist of the specific unit for that god (Plague Marines for example). I will cover each god in this next installment so it will be a bit long. Until then!

Crusade era terminator shoulders

2008-12-09T21:29:00.003-05:00

Alright so this is a mini tutorial on how to make the terminator shoulder pads on the previous post. This really is a lesson in salvaging. Now there are plenty of tutorials on how to make them from the barrels cut in half to dreadnought leg guards to scratch building with plastic card and/or greenstuff. This is just scrounging around through bits.

These are the pads when on a terminator. A little big perhaps but I like that look. Makes it look ceremonial and that fits with the Thousand Sons.

This is the bit off the sprue. Basically you just glue thin strips of plasticard to it to make the pad. its pretty simple. Id suggest using a reasonably thin plasticard so it can bend. I also suggest attaching the plasticard to the pad then paint it up and attach to the terminator. With the thin plasticard it can bend a bit to help fit onto the terminator if the arms are a little in the way.

This is the bit on the sprue. It should be on the same sprue as the bladed prow that i used for the terminators khopesh (which has its own tutorial).

That's basically it. Not much to show. How crazy you go with the plasticard strips to simulate leather is up to you. I don't know how it works with other chariot kits. But these bits can work with other legions such as Death Guard, Ultramarines, World Eaters. It depends on which bit you use of course but it could work.

Some more stuff to come soon. Hope that was a bit helpful at last with ideas on how to use other bits you may have.

Crusade Era Terminators

2008-12-09T21:22:00.003-05:00

Hello all. I have made some progress on my Crusade era Thousand Sons. In this case the 3 terminators i needed for my squad which is being fielded as allied Grey Knights.

I followed the same paint scheme as with my previous thousand son stuff. Those shoulder pads are actually from the Tomb King Chariot box. I will post a mini tutorial on how to create the pads. Its a little large but I like the look of it. I think it fits well.

Army starting insight

2008-11-26T17:49:00.003-05:00

Keeper of the Fortress

Hello again. As promised I will share my opinions on some things. Firstly I will be discussing my views on building an army. Now there are two way you can build your army: Planned and build as you go. Both have there merits and both can be hard especially for someone new.

With the random 40k Event my friends and I are doing i started thinking about how to build up an army which involves the army list and the two ways mentioned above came to mind.

Firstly Planned. This means that you sit down with your codex and write out the blueprints of your army aka the Army List. You may work on it and change it a bit but he final product is more or less what you want to build. From there you make your army. I find this works well with armies like Space Marines, Chaos, Eldar, and Orks for example. Why these army types? Well because with space marines for example if you model the marine with a plasmagun or heavy weapon then that is what the marine is stuck with unless you remove it and replace it. (I am not going to touch the subject of proxies at all.) With Chaos and eldar it is a similar thing. A howling banshee can only represent a banshee and a berserker cannot represent a plague marine for example. With Orks you can have slugga boyz but to represent shoota boyz you would need more models. Get my meaning? The planned army list is best with these armies and armies like them.

Build as you go: This is where you find a cool model or unit and you buy it and then factor it into your army. With this style of army building you have to be careful because you could change your mind and not need that unit. Now of course we all have bought something because it looks so cool and rarely get to use it. The two armies that I feel can work the best with this are Necrons and Imperial Guard. Why? Well with Necrons there are no real unit upgrades that you need to model with the exception being your Lord. Everything else in the army has equipment that does not change. You still have to keep them specific so immortals only represent immortals but its easier then the other armies listed above. Why Imperial Guard you may wonder? Well a chimera can be use by a lot of units. Guardsmen can represent a variety of units from conscripts to command squad. Heavy weapon teams can be used as support squads there own heavy weapon unit or to represent a heavy weapon in a squad of guardsmen. Sentinels can be fast attack or part of the command platoon thing. Essentially its easy to fit in units to these types of armies.

Now neither method is better then the other. I find that an army that you really enjoy (For example Dark Angels for me) that either method works as you wont mind having extra models. Essentially you want to build up and own as much as you can for that army. If you are going to branch out into new armies i find the planned method works best as you will have a solid idea of what exactly you need.

Now for New players my best suggestion would be to mix the two approaches. Establish a core which would be an HQ that you like configured how you want and 2 or 3 troop choices configured however you want them to legally be. From there as you learn the rules you can make easier tweaks to the army and impulse buys may fit better as you ll have a strong core already.

Hope that insight was helpful to people. Many of us know this already but we don't always follow it.

So what do you do when you build your armies? I personally do both. If I am trying to make a tough as nails list ill strictly plan.

More stuff to come in the future.

Status report

2008-11-25T21:41:00.004-05:00

Hey all. Just thought id make a little update post. Now all i did for this picture below is make him a new base and started some minor touch ups on his helmet. I may do a little more touch up on him in the future. He is a Dark Angel Deathwing Interrogator Chaplain.

I got some more BFG stuff to paint so I think I will work on them and bases for my Crusade Thousand Sons. Depending how fast I can base and paint the 8 escorts and 3 cruisers I may be able to get started on the actual crusade terminators soon.

I want to post some Tactica that I use when i play games but I do not know what exactly. I may do something on general things. I also have another idea in mind so stay tuned some tips and tactics to come aside from just progress reports on what I'm working on.

Oh just so any followers are aware. I play Dark Angels and codex marines. I have some Tau and a few chaos. I have played with my tau and i know a good amount of how to play chaos marines. I am also working on Orks for that challenge. So if you have any army specific questions especially about any Space Marine army except space wolves feel free to leave a comment with your question. This goes for the other armies listed above. I will do my best to answer them with my opinions in a post. If no one does that its fine I will still do what I have in mind as well. Until then.

Kahotep

2008-11-22T23:42:00.003-05:00

Hello all. A small update. Here we have a pre heresy thousand son Commander. I named him Kahotep:

His wargear mimics that of Sicarius because i do plan to use him as a counts as model for Sicarius. He would be a second HQ model to go with my Count as Tigirius (Ahriman or Mhotep from the HH novel). So why do you ask? Well I like the Fluff of the Thousand Sons and having a high degree of Psychic potential within the legion. I think the rules of Sicarius best mesh with this theme.

So yea there he is. I like how he came out. When next I work on the army it'll be on the Terminators. When thatll be? Not sure but it wont be a long delay. Id like to have my 1500 point army done by spring.

That and other things to come when i have time to collect my thoughts onto here. Until then.

The Dakka Ladz Big Captain

2008-11-09T23:37:00.002-05:00

Hey all as stated earlier I rolled Orks for the random 40k event. Luckily for me that meant just one guy to paint. I decided to make a freeboota Ork horde cause Ork pirates are fun. They are called the Dakka Ladz. So here is my HQ:

His names is Grax Dakka Goldteef. And yes it says Yo Ho! on his Gob. He is "Da Big Kaptain" of the Dakka Ladz and because of this he counts as Ghazghkull. I went with a purple color scheme because i think its a good color for ork pirates. Gave him a Gold gob because its styling. The purple is hormagaunt purple base with Liche Purple over it and a wash of leviathan purple. It looks better in color then with this picture. He doesn't have a Matte Varnish yet and I think ill do that soon because he is a big pewter model.

Anyways I'm done with the first part of the event. Once we start phase 2 in Jan. I will post an update on the event. Of course as i make progress on my other projects ill post as well.

So enjoy and Take care.

So it begins

2008-11-08T03:32:00.002-05:00

Hey all. Not much to update with here. However the Random 40k event has started! First deadline for us is January 8th. Why so late you ask? Well one among our group is doing a forgeworld order for stuff and it takes some time so we made it a little longer. I will be joining him in that order but not for this event.

Anyway I rolled Orks for mine. another of our group rolled orks and two rolled imperial guard. I believe one other is doing eldar. Should be fun as we all have different styles for what we are going to do.

So what I bought for my HQ is Ghazkull's model. Why? Because its a cool looking beefy ork model. He is a bit points heavy and I need a name for him still but it fits the little fluff i made for the army. Basically I'm running a freeboota ork pirate army. Only instead of going crazy with boyz I'm using purely shoota boyz. for troops and a meganobz troop choice because of the warboss. Basically this model will represent the leader of the Freebootaz. THey are called the Dakka Ladz. Normally the list i have would use a big mek shokk attack gun and a warphead weird boy but i figured id do something different for this challenge.

So yea updates with that model hopefully soon. I plan to get him done asap cause it'll be a nice change and i want to continue work on my Marines too. But we are on our way. SO if anyone wants to follow along your more then welcome to. If you have an suggestions of Orky pirate leader name for a ork group that loves the sound of gunz and the smell of propellant lemme know and ill take a look at em.

Until then..

Random 40k!!

2008-11-05T20:49:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone. I cam up with an idea a while ago and talked to my friend on it. And after talking with Helios Raven (link on the right with the other blogs). Basically its a modified escalation type event thing. And Helios suggested we randomize it and thats what we did. I wrote up a guideline type thing for it and we decided to post it on our blogs here as well as other stuff.

Feel free to do this with your friends or group.

Random 40k Army Challenge

Welcome to the random 40k army challenge. What is this you ask? Well this is a long term group activity. You and a group of friends randomly choose a 40k army and slowly build each of your armies at the same rate. This is designed to be done in addition to any other army your working on and is broken down accordingly to allow people to still work on there current army idea. After each part is complete you have a little brawl as either a crazy free for all or by randomly choosing who fights who. First lets get to how you choose your army.

Alright so basically there are two ways to choose your army. Either by putting the armies into a hat and choosing or by rolling dice and consulting the following list:

1. Imperial Guard
2. Orks
3. Eldar
4. Chaos Space Marines
5. Inquisition
6. Necrons
7. Space Marines
8. Chaos Daemons
9. Tau
10. Tyranids
OPTIONAL
11. Dark Eldar
12. Reroll

Ok so why are the Dark Eldar optional to add? Its not because we hate them but because the models are hard to find without ordering online and the codex cannot be found in stores. Now when the new codex and models come out then they wont be optional. If yoru group agrees to them then by all means add them in. Obviously without the dark Eldar you would roll a d10 and with them in you would roll a d12.

Great! You have your army picked out now how does this event work? It’s a series of parts explained below. But please note all models must be WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) so choose your equipment carefully.

Part 1: Establishing a chain of command. Everyone picks one HQ that is legal for your army that would take up a force organization slot (so no Emperors Champions, command squads, etc.). The HQ unit must be fully painted and based. Once everyone has completed there HQ you have a HQ brawl. Yea it may not be fair for some HQ’s but its just for fun and so everyone sees the models.

Part 2: Troops win the war. Now that everyone has picked there HQ you move one to ONE troop selection from your codex.(ie. A tactical space marine squad). The squad must be atleast minimum size and can go to maximum size. Yes it is only one troop selection so one troop choice. Also dedicated transports are not allowed at this time unless the selection requires a transport (example: Pathfinders need a devilfish but they are not troops so you cannot make a squad of them here). Also squad character upgrades (Ie, Telion, changeling etc) are allowed. The troops selection must be fully painted and based. Once everyone is done you have another small brawl with your HQ and troop selection.

Part 3: A proper battle group. This is exactly as above but this gives you your second troop selection making your forces actually force organization legal. The two troops are split apart for two reasons. One monetary constraints, this allows everyone to participate as everything is spaced. Also some squads are huge like ork boys this allows people to take some time to make a nice force. Once everyone has there second troop selection complete you can fight either a free for all, team game, or one on one battles. Obviously the size of yoru group may dictate which way you fight.

Part 4: Reinforcements are en-route. Alright its time to wage real war. You have your HQ and 2 compulsory troops. What now? Well no you flush out your army. You are able to expand your army as you see fit from your codex. So dedicated transports can be added in here a second HQ or things like command squads or a Emperor’s Champion. Now don’t go too crazy there is a point limit. The limit can be either750, 850 or 950 points. Your group must come to an agreement on which one you choose. If someone is already above 750 for some reason then obviously you would have to go with a higher point limit. There are options to give flexibility to people with time constraints. Also keep in mind everything must be force organization legal. So elites for example can only have 3 slots. Again everything must be fully painted and based. Once everyone is done then you can start fighting actual battles utilizing missions and deployment from the rulebook.

Part 5: Escalation. The armies should be shaping up nicely now. Its time to expand upon the forces you have collected. The armies can be expanded up to 1200 points. As always you have to follow the force organization chart. Once everyone has fully painted and based the additional units its time for another battle. From this point on you should be fighting standard battles as either one on one or team battles using the mission and deployment tables.

Part 6: Time to make war. Its time to bring the army up to a decent minimum playing level. Players can expand there army up to 1500 points. Again force organization chart must be adhered to and all models must be painted and based by the end of the time limit. After everyone has finished more battles to be fought. You could have a impromptu mini tournament at this point to get games in against more people.

Part 7: Let’s get Dangerous. Alright this is it. This is where all this time has been going towards. This is the final part where everyone is able to expand there army to 1750 points. Once everyone has fully painted and based there additions everyone should play a game against each other person.

Congratulations! You all now have an army fully painted anf finished and its an army that you may not have been able to get to otherwise!

Sound like something you would be interested in? Well great! Now here are some specifics to how this works.

When picking an army it is best to keep it random. However there is one re-roll allowed (or re-pick if you did it out of a hat). Now this is of course meant to be fun so more then once is fine if your group is fine with that. Also As this is a great way to get new people into the game that may be interested if someone is new and wants in but like a specific race they can of course pick that race. This is not meant to discourage any new people from joining the hobby.

You probably noticed that there are 7 parts yet no mention of time limitations. That should be determined by your group but in general 3 weeks to 3 months per part is a good amount of time. For the first few parts 3 weeks should be well enough time but for something like part 4 which is probably the biggest point jump 3 months may be necessary. Remember this is a casual army build meant to be done on the side while you are working on your current main army so you do not need to speed demon this stuff. Also once your group finishes on part you need not jump right into the next part. While that may be possible at certain time the parts are meant to be started once the group as a whole can continue. So any amount of time can pass between the end of one part and the beginning of another.

A note on models:

As stated earlier all models must be WYSIWYG. But that does not mean you have to stick to 40k units or blisters. This is the time to get funky as we are building armies in small stages. Conversions are not only allowed, they are encouraged. Now of course the 40k line may have that model you need or want but done be afraid to look at the other ranges from Games Workshop either. As long as in the end the model is WYSIWYG as best as possible its all good.

Another thing to keep in mind is that each part should only be started once everyone can participate. This means when everyone has the models and painting supplies they need. If someone had to order there model off the internet then everyone should wait until that person gets there model. The goal is for everyone to progress as one and have fun.

Interested in taking this further? No problem it is easy to go past 1750 if you want to just progress by 250 point each time! Also if your group want to spice things up by turning the games played into a tournament type thing then go for it. This is just the baseline by which you and a group of friends can start something new (or a variant of an existing race for you crazy veterans) and progress together.

TIPS:

These aren’t so much tips on how to do well in this event but on how to have fun.
- If you plan out an army list and break into stages that go with the parts you may find it easier to know what you have to buy.
- Share your lists with each other. You never know what bits your friends may have that you could use to make your army.
- It’s not necessary to have a 1750 list in the beginning Sometimes it’s more fun to pick as you go and make it fit into the constraints.

Well this is a fluid event meaning that it can be added to or revised as necessary.

Good luck and Have fun!

[We aren't sticklers on WYSISYG and by that I mean bolt pistols don't need to be modeled on marines for example. If you want to that's great but basically only war gear items need to be modeled.]

Its really segmented and really lose time wise because its meant as stated before to be built while working on your main army. Also its a great way to get new players and people interested into the game as well! Just let them choose what they want and participate. Anyways sorry for the length hope you all enjoy. When I roll for my army ill post what i got and my choice for my HQ! Take care.

Prepare Starboard weapons to fire!

2008-11-03T22:51:00.002-05:00

Hey there. Here is a bit of an update. Two capital ships.

This is the Thunderchild above. The apocalypse Battleship. Painted in Angels of Fury colors.

The Battle barge Angelic Fury. Obviously in Angels of Fury colors.

They were assembled by Helios Raven link on the right side. More on the way eventually when the order comes in and such. Working on crusade era Thousand Sons now. More to come soon when I have time to post something more substantial. Sorry for the bad pictures. Hope you enjoy. Until next time.

My counts as Pedro Kantor

2008-10-26T17:36:00.002-04:00

Another thing I finished during the little paint fest. He is for my Angels of Fury Army.

He is Supreme Grand Master Uriel. Chapter Master of the Angels of Fury. He counts As Pedro Kantor rules wise. same wargear obviously. I plan to make multiple Uriel models namely one with Azrael's gear. They are a Dark Angels successor chapter but I plan to primarily use the Space Marine codex with them. Anyway. I like the helmet. It almost kinda looks like the eyes are glowing when seen in person.

Anyways that's about it for what Ive actually completed. I made some progress on my Battle Barge and Apocalypse class Battleship (in Angels of Fury colors) but they are not done. When I finish them ill post them of course. Once I'm done with all that its back to crusade era thousand sons. Until next time.

For the Omnissiah

2008-10-26T17:25:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone. Had another paint fest type thing and I made some more progress! Here is one of the things I finished.

Its a Mechanicum Battleship for Battlefleet Gothic. Thanks goes to http://heliosravensnest.blogspot.com/ for assembling this and other ships. He is a good assembler. I painted it to fill double duty. Its in the same color scheme as my Angels of Fury as well as being able to fill its primary role as a Mechanicum battleship. Game wise ill be using it as the Omnissiah's Victory ship for my mechanicum fleet. Fluff wise its the Angels of Fury Forge ship.

Colors used are Adeptus Battlegrey, dwarven bronze, mechrite red, chaos black, badab black wash. Matte Varnished for protection.

Well that's it for this guy. Hope you enjoy. Until next time.

Looks like ill need 2 more.

2008-10-22T14:58:00.004-04:00

Mesy messy workspace. Anyway. Ive been pretty sick and its reflected in my drop pod unfortunately. Its done and it serves its purpose but i totally dropped the ball on this one. Maybe when i feel better and after i work on some other stuff ill try and salvage it. the big problem is its misaligned slightly. I dont know how I did it but I did. I could remove the pylons easily enough its the center data console thats on there firmly. Its salvagable i just am lazy.

Now the drop pod can serve its purpose in a game. its built badly but built and its painted. SO I can use it but chances are im just going to buy 2 more instead of the one more i originally needed. So learn from my mistakes and dont assembly under the influence of medication. You think yoru doing great until you sober up.

Its a great kit and a very precise kit so when i eventually start on one again ill talk about it. Anyways up next is my counts as Pedro Kantor for this army his name is Master Uriel. After that is probably my capital ships for BFG then either more BFG or crusade era Thousand sons.

Sweeping last sector now..

2008-10-12T12:47:00.003-04:00

Hey all. Yesterday was a little spur of the moment paint-a-thon with a friend of mine. It was eventful as I made a little progress on my drop pod and some assembly for my Angels of Fury HQ choice. I also start work on some Battlefleet Gothic (BFG) stuff. I finished three nova escorts and started base coating my battlebarge. Since the Nova squadron is done here are the pictures of em.

There nothing spectacular. There done in theme with my Angels of Fury chapter. All my imperial and space marine vessels and mechanicus vessels that I want to get over time will be painted in this way as per my chapters fluff.

Anyway BFG stuff is fast to paint. Assembly is a nightmare for the larger ships as there is no instructions but my friend was nice enough to assemble them for me. Check out Helios Ravens 40k blog at http://heliosravensnest.blogspot.com/. He is helping me out with the assembly of the larger ships aka assembling them and trying to salvage my Thunderfire Cannon as it was a bad mold.

Other then the larger ships potentially being a problem in terms of assembly they are fun and easy to paint. Another nice thing is that escort ships are usually 1 to 2 pieces. Hardest part about painting these guys is basecoating them. although you could do a spray base coat if you wanted. I am just going with brushing it on and it can be a pain to get the paint into the recesses. After the base coat its really up to you how detailed you want to be with yours. I just semi drybrushed adeptus battlegrey on the ship, picked out the engines in black and painted the Lance weaponry in bronze. Then i gave the whole thing a wash of badab black and sealed it with a matte varnish.

So yea anyway that's a little change of pace. I still will be working on the drop pod so when i have time to make more progress I shall. Until then..

Small Update

2008-10-07T23:25:00.003-04:00

Its been a bit but here is a small update.

Like ive said i switched gears and started on the Drop pod. Now I havent had much time to work on it so this is what I have done so far. Its a great kit. Its not perfect but after doing this much on the pod I will be able to make my second one faster and better.

Just for some perspective on it incase your like me and havent seen a drop pod in person before.. Its pretty big. With the doors down its footprint is roughly that of a landraider. but wider.

So that is it. More to come as I finish it and the other stuff i said prior to this I will put up here eventually. Until then. Take care

Thats not a Cannon..

2008-09-27T20:47:00.003-04:00

Hey all. So yes I switched to the Drop pod. I just had to. Progress is slow because real life gets in the way as I'm sure we all know. SO hear is a door finished just to get an idea of the color scheme I'm going with.
It is for my Angels of Fury army. I will have to get at least one more Drop pod for the army proper but that is another story. It is going to be for my Sternguard (Which I am calling Interdiction squads) though. And the area around the aquila has been touched up so it looks better now. Its a simple color scheme.

The Kit for the pod is great. A little daunting to look at at first but its straightforward with the instructions. It comes with aquilas or chapter specific icons. Black Templars, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Ultramarines, Space Wolves and Imperial Fists which could function as Crimson Fists no problem. And there is one for each door. So that is nice. And its made to be able to open and close the doors. Having it in person it is bigger then I would have thought. Not a bad thing just didn't expect it.

So more to come on the Drop pod. I also plan to do a segment look at Stubborn and Fearless. Not so much pitting them against each other but more looking at what they do. I love both of them and I think there both great. Yea even in massive ork armies that cant make the saves. Ill explain why in that segment whenever I do it. And don't worry I haven't forgotten about my Crusade Era Thousand Sons I just wanted do the Drop pod and take a little break from them.

That reminds me I will also do a Segment for the Army lists for both my Angels of Fury Dark Angels Succesor chapter (Using the new SM codex list) and for my Crusade Era Thousand Sons. When I dunno yet but I will and ill do a progressive paint log on them as I finish units or transports for units except for the crusade era thousand sons. Ill do shots of them as I finish batches of em and again with the army as a whole as I finish units to see the progression. Kind alike a checklist thing Anyways..

If you have the new Drop pod or Thunderfire Cannon tell me what you think of the kits.

The Beginning of a Thunderfire Cannon

2008-09-19T14:39:00.003-04:00

Greetings. As I stated before ill be giving the Thunderfire Cannon a go and see how far I get on it.

These are the pieces of it. I am not doing the Techmarine Yet. He will be done after or if i get fed up ill switch to him. Its all pewter unfortunately which means assembly will be a bit of a nuisance.

A note on assembling it. I started a little bit or rather tried. The cannon part of this thing does line up right and I'm having trouble getting it to fit right. I ran out of ideas on it so I'm going to start work on this thing in reverse order and work on the treads and mount for it first. If the thunderfire cannon itself was plastic this would be a lot easier. I may switch gears and work on the drop pod first depending on if I give in to the drop pod calling to me.

Space Marine Spearhead plus help me!

2008-09-19T00:34:00.008-04:00

Hey hey all. Got my Space Marine spearhead in earlier today but I had to head to work so here is the post on it now. Its just a small review of the contents. And I have to say I'm happy with it.

Here is the top of the box. The spearhead is designed to give you the codex and a splash of new models to wet your whistle so to speak. Some of the earlier spearheads like Dark Angels were different in that you got essentially like 1000 points of an army really.

The back of the box detailing whats included

This is the contents. Basically everything is taken out of there boxes and put into the spearhead box to save room so that it is not some giant box thing of doom. The pewter to the left and plastic to the right. The Drop pod is bigger then I expected. Also the Codex is under the drop pod.

The Picture above this one gave them away but they deserved a closer look. GW made bases for bikes! These are the bases that come with the scout bikers. Now I would imagine that GW will eventually put these bases out for sale by themselves like they do there other bases. I hope they do at least because I need em for my Ravenwing.

I didnt go into detail on the contents because we all know it and the website of GW has it there to see and all nicely painted too.

Ok so im putting the Thousand Sons on hold a bit. I will still work on them but not solely as I am going to make something out of the spearhead and post progress on them. I am starting with the Thunderfire Cannon because I think it looks cool. I will still base coat thousand son stuff and what not but the cannon will be my focus.

Still with me? Alright good. You will notice the title of this post included a plea for help. A few friends and I are taking are first steps into the world of Battlefleet Gothic. We are going to tie it into our 40k games for fun and the ships look cool. The Help I need is if anyone has a link to a site with instructions on how to build the ships. I personally need a sight with assembly instruction of imperial and space marine stuff. But as of right now I just need instruction or a diagram on how to assembly an Apocalypse Class Battleship. If you have any info on this please link me to it in the comments section. Thanks and coming next will be part one of my Thunderfire Cannon. Until then.

Crusade Era Sergeants

2008-09-19T00:34:00.003-04:00

Hey all. Its been a bit since I last updated. I have had as much time to paint so progress has been slow. But I did finish the 3 tactical sergeants. Oh I also got my spearhead earlier today (Thursday) so ill post a review of its contents after this. Lets dive right in!

Pretty standard stuff. those CCW's were from the tutorial prior to this post. I'm using scrolls to denote astartes of rank. basically sergeants, veterans, terminators and HQ's will have scrolls on them.

I like there poses as they add some life to the models. Not much to say on them really. Other then batch painting these guys works pretty well. Its not overly complicated where it does not work out. And again some crazy plumage but I like it.

What to do with all those bits? Another Khopesh Tutorial

2008-09-10T15:42:00.003-04:00

Hey all. Through making my crusade era Thousand Sons I have used a variety of warhammer boxes: the Tomb Kings Chariot box, High Elf Archer box and the Warriors of Chaos box. Being that I do not play Warhammer fantasy i obvious have a lot of bits unused. So I thought I would show a use for some of em namely the warriors of chaos CCWs (Close combat weapons). I used 3 of them to make the sergeants power khopesh weapons so here is a tutorial on that:

Here are the weapons on the sprue. Now this can work for anyone wanting a variety in there melee weapons. The hammers work for Salamanders and the Mace for anyone really. You could do what I am doing and skip the whole make it a khopesh part.

Here are the hands I will be using for the khopesh and the arms ill be using to attach them to. I went with some chaos Chainswords because I have no real use for them as of now anyway. Any arm can work though.

The whole reason I'm doing this are for these 3 weapons. These are from the chariot box.

Alright so onto the meat and potatoes. What I did was cut the wrist off the chainsword arms and i cut the wrist free from the rest of the gauntlet for the warriors of chaos weapon hand. I also cut the khopesh blade off the chariot arm and the weapon heads off of the warriors of chaos hand.
Here they are complete. Basically just dry fit and file until they fit well enough and glue them all together. Now I know there is no powerpack on these weapons but they can still function as power weapons. Maybe the power generator is inside the weapon or maybe it is empowered by the wielders psychic might. They are Thousand Sons after all. Either way it doesn't matter they will function fine as power weapons.

The use of the warriors of chaos weapon hands were an example of utilizing bits as the khopesh was required. Other examples are the chariot and square bases that I turned into objectives or stratagems. Another example would be the high elf instrument being used as smoke launchers on my vindicator. When I do more examples of utilizing more bits that i essentially wouldn't have a use for i'll of course post it. Until next time.

Thousand Sons Librarian

2008-09-08T22:28:00.003-04:00

Hey all here is my addition to my crusade era Thousand Sons. It is an HQ choice. For the army list itself it will count as Tigirius and be known as Ahriman. I know its not how he appears in the art but I think the huge plumage works well to distinguish him. Here he is:

He is essentially done barring a few touch ups. I used the high elf archer super plumage thing. Its large but I think it fits with the whole theme. The Khopesh weapon is from the tomb kings glaive bit from the chariot box cut and put onto a power axe arm. The head is actual a chaos terminator lord head and just a Dark Angels backpack and company champion shoulder pads to distinguish him apart.

Well I like him and I hope you all do too. I don't have as much time to paint as I used to so my progress will be slower. My next thousand son work will be either another HQ unit just cause i want one or the 3 sergeants I will need for the army. Progress and the like to come! Until next time.

Codex: Dark Angels Review

2008-09-06T13:00:00.004-04:00

Warning! This is a long one

Company Master and Company Champion. 5th company

Hey everyone. After my praise of the new Space Marine codex I got the idea to put up my thoughts on the Dark Angels Codex. A little review if you will. Now its been out for a bit now but I think it deserves to be looked at again especially since the new Space Marine codex is coming out. Now to compare the two but because the new codex will have similarities in tactical load out for marines with this Codex. So here we go.

Codex Dark Angels:

length 88 pages

Before we talk rules I will talk briefly on what is in the codex. Background information and fluff. Pictures of the army throughout. The forces section has information for all the units in the codex. A new Wargear section with drawings. Information for weapons and armor and upgrades are there. Specific things like Rosarius are given a page number to there specific sections in the codex. I will not talk more about this as the codex has been around and this is primarily about the Dark Angels unit rules and the like so here we go.

First thing I will talk about is Deathwing Assault. (Note that the new Drop pod Assault for the codex space marine codex works essentially the same way). Deathwing Assault is based around the Deathwing Terminator squads and what it does is makes half of your terminator squads held in reserve, rounded up, to automatically teleport in on your first turn. Note that it is automatic so there is no reserve rolling needed on the first turn. You choose which squads come into play first turn. Also you can attach Independent characters in terminator to a terminator squad. So Interrogator chaplain attached to a squad counts as 1 unit. The reasoning for this is because if you make a pure deathwing force and hold them in reserve GW wants you to have something on the field turn 1 so you and your opponent don't just sit there as you fail reserve rolls. Lets move on to the Deathwing.

Deathwing are terminator squads. The Dark Angels first company is comprised only of terminators. Big difference here is that you can only get 5 man squads and only 1 special weapon (assault cannon, heavy flamer, cyclone missile launcher). The really nice thing is that you can mix assault and shooting terminators together in one squad. So a heavy flamer w/ powerfist can be with assault marines. So your assault terminators can have members of there squad shooting as they close in making the unit more effective overall. The biggest unique thing is that the cyclone missile launcher can go on any terminator type. This means you can have the missile launcher on a thunder hammer storm shield or on twin lightning claw. This is really nice because you can have a predominantly assault squad with anti tank punch or anti horde long range punch. There big thing is that they are fearless. Now I know fearless has hurt some larger units and I think that makes perfect sense but I will talk about that another time. Now with Deathwing fearless is great. Why? Because your only a 5 man squad. If you lose close combat chances are you are either already wiped out or its only going to be by at most 4 wounds. making four 2+ saves isn't hard. a squad of these with assault cannon and a chainfist is 250 pts. not that bad considering there terminators and average terminator cost is 40 pts a model.

Ravenwing. Now this is how you can make your deathwing assault really shine depending. Ravenwing squads are radically different from other marine bikers and speeders. They do not have attack bike squads and they cannot have 3 assault cannon land speeder squads. So this means they are broken up as thus: Attack squadrons and support squadrons. Attack Squadrons have up to 6 bikers an attack bike and a land speeder with assault cannon and heavy bolter. A full attack squad with power fist and 2 melta guns will run you over 400 points. Its expensive but worth it. The Support squadrons are Land Speeder squadrons. They can be a max of 5 speeders. Catch is you can only have 1 assault cannon and 1 typhoon missile launcher. Its unfortunate but what is nice is that you can have multi meltas with any configuration. Is a good support role unit hence its name. a 3 speeder squad with a typhoon launcher is a good anti horde unit. Now what makes the ravenwing worth this? All bikers are fearless and they have scout. So they can outflank or get a free 12 inch move before the game. Also every biker has a teleport homer meaning deathwing assaults can be very precise. That is a lot of stuff for bikers. Again fearless is good because you don't want them to ever fall back. The attack squads are good at tank hunting. Now understandably people are upset at the lack of attack bike squads but i like this new set up for my ravenwing. Now that attack squadron can also combat squad into 2 three bike squads the attack bike and the land speeder. Normally the attack bike and land speeder deploy and move on there own anyway. So what is combat squad?

Combat squads are something introduced in this codex and will be in the new space marine codex. It allows a full squad to break into two even halves at deployment basically. The units in this codex that can do that are: Company veterans, scouts, tactical squads, assault squads, ravenwing attack squadrons, and devastators.

The special characters in this codex are fair. Azreal and Ezekial have artificer armor. There rules are essentially the same. Ezekial is the only 3 wound Ld 10 librarian in the codex. Belial the deathwing special character allows terminator troop choices and Sammael allows attack squads as troops. He is also the only thing to have a mantle. He also has his jet bike which has twin linked storm bolters and a plasma cannon on it. Or he can be in his land speeder which has twin linked assault cannons and twin linked heavy bolters. It also has front and side armor of 14 which is pretty great. All in all the special characters are all good. Belial is the least spectacular but he is also the cheapest and allows terminator troops which is a strong troop choice.

Company veterans are essentially veterans in power armor. They are from the battle companies instead of first company. What is nice is that you can have 4 combi weapons in the squad. (The FAQ states the Sergeant can take any upgrade allowed to the squad) So what I am working on is a squad of company veterans with 4 combi plasma and a plasmagun in drop pod. But yea they are your power armored veterans for the army.

Scouts are elite choices and other then that it is essentially the same.

Assault Squads are nearly the same but the big change is that they cannot take flamers only plasma pistols.

Tactical squads are different in that they need to be 10 man in order to get a heavy weapon. But they can take a razorback transport regardless of the size. other dedicated transport options are rhinos or drop pod.

Dreadnoughts are elite and roughly the same. they can be made venerable but cannot be given veteran skills.

Devastator squads are essentially the same stat and option wise. They do have combat squads

Chaplains and interrogator chaplains are different entries. The Difference is the Interrogator chaplain is the better of the two with 3 wounds and can take terminator armor.

Company Master comes standard with Iron halo. has weapon upgrade options. Can be given a jump pack but that is it. To get a captain on bike you must take Sammael and to get a terminator captain you must take Belial.

Techmarines come standard with a 2+ save. There servitors can have more then 1 plasma cannon per squad. Techmarine can be upgraded to have a servo harness.

Command squads are essentially the same but in order to take a company champion you need to have a Company Master.

Land Raider and Land Raider crusader are essentially the same as they are in other codices. The difference is that they are the only vehicle to have Power of the Machine Spirit (which is true in the new codex).

Predators are cheaper for 95 points you have a auto cannon and heavy bolter sponson predator. Lascannon upgrades are expensive but still is a decent cost for the tank.

Vindicator is essentially the same.

Whirlwinds are nearly the same. Difference is they don't have the mine missile instead they have a large blast template flamer. It ignores cover and has str 4 ap 5. But this new codex doesn't have the mine missile either.

Rhinos are 35 points Drop pods are 50.

The razorback is 50 points standard

Important! all power armored marines come with a bolter, bolt pistol, frag and krak grenades standard. That includes devastators so do not forget.

We are coming towards the end of my epic post. I want to make it clear though that I did not go into great detail with things like standards and what hey do and the subtle difference of things. The Lions Helm and Ezekiel's book function a little differently but I wont go into it. That is really something for people interested in playing Dark Angels to sit down sit down and read while reading the codex for themselves.

There are some differences but all in all the codex is really solid. the ability to actually make use of the heavy weapon in a tactical squad while advancing with the assault stuff is nice. Its a codex that you have to read a few times to see the little things that are changed and then utilize. Its not overpowered and it really isn't a weak codex is what I'm trying to convey in this epic post.

Hope those that read all the way to the end enjoyed a glimpse into the unforgiven. For those that already play Dark Angels and read the codex I'm sorry if you read all this.

Repent! For Tomorrow you die!

Until next time.

First Imperssions of the new Space Marine Codex

2008-09-06T11:47:00.003-04:00

Hey all this one is a talkie as I don't have a picture to post or anything.

So anyway I was able to view a store copy of the new Space Marine Codex. All I have to say is I love it. Now yes its been said that my blessed Dark Angels wont be getting a FAQ to give them things like WS 6 captains and Chaptermasters or 3+ Storm Shields but that's alright. This makes the two codices different from each other and actually gives "Codex" chapters something that sets them apart.

I will not go into specifics but there are some weapon type changes like cyclone missile launcher shooting twice which is cool. I mean I use em in my Deathwing squad and they only shoot once for my Dark Angels. There is other things too like rhinos and Drop pods costing 35 points.. yep that's right.

But back to the codex as a whole. Its beefy stuffed to the brim with fantastic art, cool pictures, fluff and of course rules.

Now I have heard talk over this interweb and of course there are the negative people who hate any change that comes out. And really that is a shame. I am not saying this codex is perfect but it is awesome. Any codex is going to have its flaws and things that are annoying to someone but the proportion of goodness in this book is much much higher then the bad in my opinion.

The special characters are all great in terms of there fluff page and what they do as I'm sure most of us heard through the rumor mills. Cpatains and Company Masters have so many upgrade options and that is col for having diversity.

Point costs for things really are fair. Yea stern guard with combi weaponry are 30 points a pop but that's a veteran unit stats with combi weapon and special ammunition so its fair. Vanguard are expensive and that is also fair. 2 attacks base before counting there +1 for two one handed weapons not to mention the +1 for the charge so honestly its fair.

Now don't get me wrong I love my Dark Angels and they will always be my main army regardless of faq or not faq update because I get my own special stuff. I think the new DA codex is great. But oh man my Angels of Fury (Which are a DA successor) are going to have fun with this codex and my crusade era Thousand Sons will too.

Now I don't want to over hype the codex due to the fact that I really like it so I wont say much more on it. What I will say is check it out if your can.

What I will say is to non space marine players you have nothing to be sore or gripe about other then the fact that GW will always give there poster child first dibs.. but that is just good tactics. Anti space marine tactics will still be as effective in theory as they are now and Space Marine players will not really have to shift gears too much if at all to relearn how to cope.

When I get my Spearhead box I will do a review of it but coming up before that I hope will be my finished Crusade era Thousand Sons HQ (Its gonna count as Tigiruis army list wise).

If anyone else had time to sit down with the codex and look it over they are welcome to comment with there thoughts. I didn't touch on the codex in depth I will do that when i get the spear head. Also mature thoughtful comments. Things like "omg space marines are cheap i hate blah blah blah" is not what this is meant for. Weve all heard that and heard enough of it on forums and the like.

Till next time.

Khopesh Tutorial for power armor

2008-09-03T19:16:00.003-04:00

Alright here it is. Its a simple tutorial again on making a khopesh. This time however it is for power armor. This type of conversion is best done with a non-sword weapon. If it has a shaft then its ideal for this. Swords are possible but involve a lot more work.

Here are the bits I used for this. The Khopesh/ glaive is from a tomb kings chariot box. The power axe is from an assault marine box.

Here is essentially how I cut the weapons up. I then trimmed the shaft of the power axe down to the grip for a better look.

And there it is! Simple but effective. Again you can do this for any type of weapon that you want. Its just like the terminator weapon but I figured id post it anyway since it helps to have a visual.

Angels of Fury Heavy weapon

2008-09-03T17:35:00.003-04:00

Hey here is my final model that I needed to finish.

I really need to make a photo diffuser or whatever its called so i can take decent pictures. Anyway he is for my Angels of Fury chapter which is a successor of the unforgiven. I have plans for the left arm that is supposed to be a part of the missile launcher and its not the whole afraid to use plasma look either.

Anyways now its back to my Crusade era Thousand sons. Before i try and assembly line the rest of the terminators and the tactical marines I am going to make my HQ unit a Librarian of course. I have to make a Khopesh for him so ill show a tutorial for power armor khopesh making when I get to making it. Until then

Dark Angel Company Veteran

2008-09-02T20:12:00.003-04:00

Hey all. I decided that prior to getting back to work on my Crusade era Thousand Sons army that I would finish up some models I had partially started. One such model was this Dark Angel company veteran. I have an army list idea that would incorporate a company veteran squad in drop pod. It was a pure battle company list and the veteran squad is equipped for shooting and as such has 4 combi plasma in it. Not as impressive as a sternguard squad but still effective. The rest would have bolters. Now I may also sub out one combi plasma for a power weapon just in case not sure yet though.

Anyway I have one more model to do before going back to my Thousand Sons. Until then.

Snap Fit Terminator pt 2

2008-08-31T14:42:00.003-04:00

Well here is the snap fit terminator fully painted and based. He is for my Angels of Fury chapter hence the scheme. I did rush him a bit but I also tried to give his black helmet some shading and it looks much better in person. One thing that holds true regardless of snap fit or regular terminator is that I hate painting the eyes for terminators. Anyways here he is:

So how is the snap fit terminator? I think its great. He goes a lot faster then a standard terminator and the detail really is nearly the same as a regular terminator kit. Now I did cut of the plastic pin that snaps him onto the base. The reason I did that is because I'm doing all my Post Heresy Imperium Terminators in a Space Hulk theme which covers the hole. One thing about the snap fit is that its a very snug fit. I still put a little dab of glue on the bits before snapping them together but that's just me. It does take some finesse to get them arms fully on but other then that I like the snap fit models.

Plans as of now for future miniature work is to make all the crusade era head I can with the remaining warriors of chaos box then work on two other models then back to thousand sons.. at least that is the plan as of now. Progress will be posted. Take care

Snap Fit Terminator pt 1

2008-08-28T17:19:00.003-04:00

Alright so here is the first part of a 2 part review of the snap fit terminator in particular. However since this is a review of the sprue in general i will talk about the ork as well

Firstly I must say that they are very nice. As i'm sure others already know the detail on these snap fits are really good. Everything is on the sprue from base to body. Both the Nob and the terminator have as much detail I feel as there multi part brethren. Pose ability is limited due to the nature of snap fit but I did notice after taking the terminator off the sprue that the arms have pose ability. Its not much but you can add some personality to the model by posing the arms up or down.

Now you could of course get better posing by cutting the plastic pins and some green stuff to get more pose ability but that's more work then needed for snap fit. What is nice is according to the White dwarf issue you can interchange the parts they show the chest and head of a multi part kit on the snap fit model. So you could change the arms as well.

Well that was long winded but to sum up the snap fit models look great for being snap fit. Also for an Ork or Space Marine army I would think the assault on black reach box would be a good investment to fill out an army.