My First 40K Games!

After about a year in the hobby, I finally got around to playing WH40K! Our local GW store was holding a Kill Team tournament and I signed up for better or worse. Over the last two months I have been building my Kill Team based on my earlier ideas of a somewhat rogue Space Marine chapter. I'm still finalizing the lore but a rough explanation would be this:

Born from a campaign to find a cure for the curse hounding all marines descended from the Blood Angels and Sanguinius, the Flesh Eaters have found a measure of protection from the Black Rage and Red Thirst by devouring those they defeat in battle. While this is not an unheard of practice, the Flesh Eaters have taken these acts of seeming barbarism to new levels chapter wide.

So anyways, my first game... well was really a bit of a practice game about a month before my first tournament match. This practice game I shared with a fellow FLGS regular to get a feel for Kill Teams. I ran a team of 5 Chaos Possessed with marks and mutations etc. A very elite and small team (and unfortunately all melee... more on that later). I figured this might be the way to go, spend all your 200pts on making the best guys you can get even stronger. In my defense, this approach looks great on paper with all the nifty looking special rules that possessed get. This is where my opponents force of two Zoanthropes and 10+ Termagaunts with devourers (Devilgaunts as they are called) showed me the error of my ways... Long story short my force was tabled in 3 rounds easily. I realized two very important things that day. Volume of dice and bodies on the table are a huge factor, and melee in Kill Team games is something that you should not focus your entire force on (no more than 1-2 units/models for that matter). Things that look good on paper rarely perform on the table top...

My “second” game was to be the first of 13 I would play in our FLGS's Kill Team tournament. Luckily lots of the other tournament competitors were new players as well so it was a great learning experience for us all. This time I ran my Flesh Eaters. I used the Space Wolves Codex and brought 10 Grey Hunters lead by a Lone Wolf. My squad received a flamer and plasma gun for free thanks to the 5^th ed SW rules (the tournament started two months before the new SW book came out). My lone wolf was issued a wolf claw and storm shield. Math hammer readers may notice that this list would actually cost 220 points and you would be correct. Our local shop has some running house rules that if you buy merch in-store at the start of the tournament then you get an extra 10% in points to spend on upgrades. A pretty smart business boosting idea I must admit. Another cool house rule is that we track the kills our Kill Team's leader makes each week, and at the end of that week we roll on a boon chart and add the number of kills to the resulting roll. Your leader may be granted an extra wound, bonuses to Strength, WS/BS, Toughness, special rules like Fleet or Infiltrate etc. These bonuses stay with your leader through the entire tournament which is awesome. You can really watch your team's leader grow with each kill. And I don't mind saying that my Lone Wolf became a true beast by the end. My team specialists were the marines with the plasma gun (Preferred Enemy), the flamer (Feel No Pain 5+) and a normal Grey Hunter (Ignores Cover). Preferred Enemy was a great choice because it not only meant that my plasma gunner almost never had to deal with the Gets Hot rule, but also with scoring hits in general. Feel No Pain on the flamer marine helped him charge into range and fry enemies without dying half way there. Lastly, Ignores Cover on the bolter shots of the last specialist cannot be overlooked. Cover plays a big part in Kill Teams and stripping it outright was very useful!

The first tournament game I played was against one of the tournament coordinators. He brought a squad of Iron Hands scouts to the table with cloaks, sniper rifles/bolters and a missile launcher. I learned very quickly that those camo-cloaks are a pain in the butt, and that 6+ Feel No Pain can save guys at the worst/best times (depending on who's side you're on). Its also nice to be able to Infiltrate and Scout move your force for pretty much ideal placement every time. All these fancy tricks however proved to be false hope though, as my Flesh Eaters swept the board by the end of the game! We played Head Hunt so all I had to worry about was killing (perfect fit for the Flesh Eaters), and I used focus fire to quickly bring down his scout specialists. The Lone Wolf himself killed 5 enemies single handed, including hunting down and slaying the Scout Sargent. I will probably write some battle reports from the perspective of the Kill Team later. For now though, I'm glad to be able to blog again and I'm very excited about how these games have gone!

Flesh Eaters and a finished Tech Wraith

So I took a bit of a break from my Nurgle force this last week and focused on two projects I've been putting off forever. One was my second Tech Wraith that needed painting and the other was a WFB Chaos Lord that needed converting.

I've seen some nice conversions of the Lord but I wanted mine to be usable in 40K. I also know that eventually I want to make a Space Marine army that can be used as either a loyalist or chaos list. Now a perfect fit for this would be a chapter like the Flesh Tearers. They are one bad step away from Khorne's skull throne already, and their Chapter Master Gabriel Seth is desperate to find a way to stop his chapter from being destroyed by the Black Rage. So I figured "what if he heard dark whispers in his rage, voices that told him his chapter could be not only saved, but restored to glory and power?" Should he answer those whispers, he may be led down the path of the Dark Gods... and the result would be the birth of the Flesh Eaters!

With that mental picture in mind I set upon my Chaos Lord model and worked up the man himself to lead these marines on their downward road to redemption. This is what I came up with:

I wanted to try and tie my model in with all the standard elements of Gabriel Seth's standard look. I started by taking four (!) standard chainsword blades along with the engines and the hilt of a Grey Knight sword and and carefully cut, lined up, and pieced together a proper monstrous eviscerator chainsword for my Seth. I'm very proud of how nicely it turned out! I also built his Iron Halo with the wings from the Dark Angels sprue. Lastly I replaced the vents on the CSM backpack with carefully shaved skulls and added fist full of trophies for The Emperor Khorne. Oh and I snuck a holstered pistol onto his right thigh to give him a sidearm and 40K'ify the model a bit more.

I'm sure I'll figure out a fluffy reason why my Seth is rocking that second sword, but really... does anyone need a reason to have more swords? Maybe he "found it" along with his baroque artificer armor he now sports, which totally does not have chaos symbols on it... Gonna have to keep out of site of those pesky loyalists...

All in all... if the most holy Inquisition didn't have enough reasons to keep a close eye on the Flesh Tearers, they certainly will when I'm done with them!

And now some actual painting! Following the same look of my first Tech Wraith I knocked this little guy out rather quickly. I also got to use a new 30-0 sized brush which was awesome when it came time to try my first hazard stripes. I think they turned out okay... more practice should do them better justice.

And here is a nice group shot of the two servants for my fallen Magos (more on him later!):

Thanks for staying tuned in!

Cry Havoc!

Now naturally I never work on just one project at a time... Severe hobby ADD has me constantly thinking of new ideas while working on ideas I just thought of. So while I was wrapping up my Malus the Undying, I began to really think about the army he will lead. I have my Strain 935 Troopers and of course Malus himself, but what about the meat and potatoes units?

In typical fashion I think from big to small, and while I don't have any vehicles yet, I do have lots of Chaos Space Marine Squad boxes lying around. So Havocs were up for imagination, and I'll be darned if I didn't just finish chopping up my new box of Obliterators... I now have these neat little weapon sprues with no Obliterators slated to use them...

Now a bit of back-story, I love rotating barrel type weapons! Miniguns, Gatling guns, assault cannons, you name it. So I took the heavy bolter guns from my CSM sets and took the assault cannon barrels from the Obliterators and made happy little counts-as autocannons/heavy bolters (I can really use them as either but will normally run the autocannon stats). Here are the three that I have made so far, as sadly Obliterator boxes only come with three of these awesome weapon ends...

Here you can see how I took SM Devastator squad ammo boxes and chopped off the handles to make ammo drums for my autocannons/heavy bolters. Its much more practical looking than the 15 round ammo belts hanging out of the normal CSM heavy bolters! You can also see the MaxMini ammo belts I used to fill in for the old ammo belts I cut away (but not discarded, those will be put to good use elsewhere).

The heads for these guys will be the CSM helmets with topknots to designate their heavy weapons specialty. I also need to make one more Havoc trooper for this first squad (I really wish Obliterator sets had more of those barrels... ) but I'm not sure what to add. Maybe I'll throw in a flamer equipped soldier for possible close quarters encounters? I'll think more on that later... 

Also in the squad will be an Aspiring Champion equipped with plasma pistol, CCW and melta bombs (head will be the Nurgle Champ head from CSM squad sprue). I did some light conversion on this guy by taking the SM Devastator Squad Sergent arm with pointing chainsword and replaced the weapon with a CSM style chainsword.

And accompanying the heavy gunners and champion will be two standard bolter marines used as disposable wound buffers. I took pics of one as they are rather boring compared to all the other stuff I've made. Mainly I wanted to show how I also replaced the standard bolter clip with an ammo box (much like SM Sternguard bolters) using once again the SM heavy bolter ammo boxes. I figure if you are in a squad of guys toting massive bullet spewing minigun type weapons and all you have is a standard rifle, you will want to shoot just as much and reload just as little :)

The "knife at the ready" look was an attempt to make something that looked less boring than the standard static pose. Kinda looks like he is ready to round a corner and knows someone will be waiting nearby. The white is paper which I am experimenting with as a cheaper alternative to green stuff when covering those darn slots found in a lot of the 25mm bases. It all gets covered with glue and sand for my standard basing anyways so why waste costly green stuff?

Here you can see a little touch I'm adding to my Nurgle force. I have a bunch of these Bretonnian (?) flintlock pistols laying around and I think they make a cool alternative to the standard bolt pistol.

I plan on making at least one more Havoc squad (probably Las Cannons mostly for anti-armor punch) to add to the Nurgle force. Then I'll round out the army with Plague Marines, Malus the Undying, my Strain 935 Troopers as possessed, maybe some Plague Zombies and some armor to boot. All just rough ideas for now.

Thanks for looking!

Massive Update of Doom!

In typical fashion I'm sure I've lost any and all attention to my blog through lack up timely updates. One day I'll get better at this blogging thing...

Allow me to bring you up to speed on the work I've been doing these last two weeks since I posted my Typhus conversion tease.

I have finished my Typhus stand-in and man am I proud of how he turned out! Using Obliterator legs, back and shoulder pads I have made a very bulky and powerful looking commander for my Nurgle force. I also used a Tyranid Hive Guard head to tie him into my Strain 935 Troopers with the eyeless maw look. Some protruding Tyranid spiky arm things from his back take to place of those terrible looking fungus chimneys on the standard Typhus (I really hate those things.... ) and with the head, help reinforce the fact that my Nurgle Lord is the carrier/host of the Strain 935 virus. However, Typhus is a name already used, so I needed a new name. My I present the Reaper of Worlds, the Plague-bringer and host to super-virus Strain 935, Malus the Undying!

Take a look:

For the scythe arm I used a Terminator LC with the claws shaved down to little knuckle spikes (like the spikes on the hand guard of the stock Typhus). The bulk of the hand and arm makes it look like Malus could wield the weapon one handed if needed. The scythe itself is toothpick wrapped in green stuff and topped with a Tyranid bonesword for the blade. 

I think I'm actually as proud of the base as I am the actual model. The dead loyalist marine was a challenge of cutting and clever posing, and I used a Skaven tail for the spine connecting to the Vampire Ghoul skull. It really reads that whatever killed this guy, be it the giant daemon scythe, a withering psychic power or the touch of 935 on an undeserving host, it wasn't pretty.

This pic should show a good scale comparison. The left is my stock Typhus that I was 90% finished painting when I decided to make a cooler looking one. The right is a filler marine for my first Nurgle Havoc Squad. More on them latter today.

I hope Malus was worth the wait! He was a fun challenge to build and required tons of careful cutting and shaving to turn this:

Into this:

Now if only the weather would stabilize so I could start painting him...

Oh the things to come...

Apologies for the lack of posts in the last few weeks. With the release of The Elder Scrolls: Online I have been happily questing and exploring my favorite fantasy world Nirn (and Oblivion). But fear not! For I have also begun work on a new Typhus counts as/conversion and I have to say, I'm extremely excited about how he is turning out! I have also acquired one of the new Hell Brute kits thanks to my always helpful local GW store and some bits, kit parts unused and donated by good friends. Lots of cool little projects like objective markers and the workings of an Abaddon conversion will follow soon! The model building and converting addict in me is cackling in delight as I cut, shave, glue and sculpt green stuff... "More!" it cries, "MORE! Mwahahaha!"

*ahem*

So, allow me to tease you with a little pick I snapped with my phone:

I shall have more completed pics to show soon I hope once my weekend is upon me. I really need to buy a little hand powered hobby drill and some tiny brass pipe or tubing for weapon hilts/shafts...

"Strain 935" Troopers Complete (Finally!)

Well I have finally done it! I completed the largest unit of minis I have ever made (kinda sad but for me its something). These guys have been on my to do list ever since I finished my test model months ago, and now thanks to rampant illness and other life delays (I guess?) I found the time to sit down and paint the suckers. They were actually pretty fun to paint. I knew they were gonna receive a healthy coating of Typhus Corrosion and Blood for the Blood God so I didn't have to worry about neatness as much. So here ya go, my squad of Nurgle themed bio-terror troops that I have code named "Strain 935":

This guys comes "equipped" with a nasty little bio-plasma flame thrower for extra crispy carnage!

 Here is another with an integrated power sword.

This is my original test model, now joined by several brethren equipped with various rending claws, crushing hand-jaws and puncturing bone spears!

Now these last two models are probably my favorite. I love the chainsaw arms and when applying the gore I got to think "what happens when you are hacking through foe after foe with a chainsaw arm?" The answer was something that looks like these guys:

I think that last model is my favorite out of all of them!

And of course a group shot:

I would hate to be on the receiving end of that charge!

Well I hope it was worth the wait (if anyone was actually waiting to see them... )

In real 40K game terms these guys could be run as Possessed or perhaps even re-flavored Khorne Berserkers? The possibilities end only with your imagination and what your opponent is okay with :)

Hopefully I can ride this will to actually paint for a while and get some stuff I have laying around done for a change! Thanks for looking!

Big Plans

So I recently learned that a GW store will be opening about 3 minutes away from my house... Awesome! A friend of mine also revealed that he has some old Tau models still in the sprue. So after some talking, we came up with the idea of actually building our respective armies, learning to actually PLAY WH:40K, and once we are established we would start a special campaign game. Details are in the works, but I think if we can do it right it will be epic!

This is a pretty big thing for me personally since I had never actually planned to learn the 40K rules. But why would I then spend large amounts of money collecting sets and bits and have a 40K blog? I have always loved the 40K universe and its fluff, I just never liked the idea of buying two, three or more $60 books that are revised every few years... plus any other special Codex books (like this one that just came out) if I want to do cool special units (which I am a predisposed sucker for). I had always planned on using a more generic and unchanging rules set like Ambush Alley Game's Tomorrow's War which is a vastly cheaper book with easy rules that don't change every few years... Primary issue with this plan as I soon learned, is that everyone plays WH:40K. So I kowtow to the gaming juggernaut that is the Microsoft equivalent in tabletop war games... and must now find some books.

Now having decided that I will be playing by the "official" 40K rules, I do need to decide the direction my minis will need to go in. My initial thoughts are reworking my forces to run as standard Space Marines using the SM codex, but the models will be CSM and traitor related. I just like the chaos models so much more that the regular SM ones (with some exceptions naturally). Perhaps a play on a chapter like the Flesh Tearers or Blood Angels which are already borderline chaos in some cases. I think I can make it work...

But of course I'll also be making my real Chaos army with Nurgle and Khorne elements etc, so really I could play either SM or CSM depending on my desires that day (and possibly with the same army). Only time will tell, but first I guess I should finish painting what I have built so far...

I have completed most of the work on my Strain Troopers so expect some awesome pics in the coming week, but to hold you over I'd like to share another one of my past works. This is my Nurgle Hellbrute I painted up and I'm quite proud that I was able to get almost every little detail on this model painted! I had planned on buying another Hellbrute and converting him with some different weapons but GW just released their new Hellbrute kit... so choices of ease vs cost there...

Dunno if I'll keep that Nurgle symbol, its kinda meh...

Until next time then. Keep an eye out for my completed Strain Troopers!