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28 February 2013

Jørn's February Hobby Challenge - Dark Apostle, Aspiring Champions etc. (Architecture of Aggression XXXII)

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There's just a few more hours left in February, so I guess it's high time I posted a few pictures and let you all in on how I got on with my primary objective for this month's Hobby Challenge. I posted about my secondary objective, the Chaos Warhound Titan legs a few days ago.


I figured I'd had the Chosen models from Dark Vengeance lying about without doing anything about them for long enough now, so I pulled them out to figure out what I could use them for. The first one was really easy. With the third eye, cape and of course the mace he's the obvious Dark Apostle.


The two Chosen with Power Axes were obvious choices for new Aspiring Champion models for my Melta squads. The only issue was that I'd rather have them using Power Swords, so I swapped the axes out for a couple of swords from the Chaos Knights set. This also gave me the opportunity to try out the airbrushing power weapons technique you can find all over the net by now.


Finally... If my two Melta-squads were getting new Champions, I didn't feel like leaving the Plasma squad without an upgrade too. One of the Chosen with Boltgun fit the bill.


No doubt, you've noticed that each of the champions above has a buddy. With the Icon of Vengeance not really being worth the points, in my opinion, I needed a regular Legionnaire to replace the icon bearers. Up until now I've been using temps from one of my Havoc squads, but since I was painting up some champions anyway...

Oh, and congratulations to us! This the 400th post on our little corner of the blogosphere..

40K Gaming Table – City of Death – Ørnulv´s February 2013 hobby challenge - end report

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During the first two weeks of February I got plenty of work done on my new urban gaming table. But after getting the flue on my winter holiday, I was just able to finish my primary objective in time to post this “end article” before March. Puh!

Well, here are some pictures that show painting in progress, and some pictures with terrain: 

The Urban table has received its basecoat; lots of PVA glue thinned in water mixed with acrylic paints.

The Urban table after painting and dry brushing.

The table after receiving a coat of warnish, and after the resin water effect was applied. I also applied some patches of dead grass and dark green grass.

The buildings had a black/grey base colour. This did not blend inn with the brown foundation colour, or “desert” sand look, so I re painted the bases on all the buildings.

I also gave each building a brown wash and a light dry brush of desert yellow in order to blend them in even more.

In March I hope to finish my new building, and also to finish the “Techno Bridge” that goes with the destroyed bridge in centre.

Looking forward to playing on this table. A lot of work has gone into this table.

Cheers,
Ørnulv

20 February 2013

Jørn's february hobby challenge - Chaos Warhound Titan

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Hi everyone. I just finished my secondary objective for this month's hobby challenge, and thought I'd post a few pictures of the legs as they... err.. stand.


From the ground to the waist, its 96 pieces of resin... Ninety-six!!! The big leg shield plates stays off until everything is painted, since there's no way I'll be able to reach anything behind them once they're glued on.

I'm not sure how many pieces remains, but I reckon I'm way past the halfway mark in that regard. It'll be interesting to see how the bigger pieces that make up the torso comes together... First though, I've got to get cracking on this mont's primary objective!


Cheers

JørnN

14 February 2013

40K Gaming Table – City of Death – Ørnulv´s February 2013 work in progress # 2

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Thought I should post some pictures of the design and building of my new 40K City of Death gaming table.

This is actually the first out of two gaming tables. This table will feature the Basilica, the Shrine of the Aquila etc, whilst the second board will be an “industrial board”. The two boards link
in two combinations. As with my “desert” themed gaming board, I have gone for a concept board. It will of course not provide me with much variation, but that is something I had to sacrifice in order to achieve the design I wanted. I wanted this board to theme with the desert board, so I decided to go for a city in a desert wasteland.

I stared designing the layout over two years ago. And I struggled with the design up to the very last minute. Anyway, here are some pictures from the initial steps taken some time ago:

I used 3cm polystyrene on top of 15mm MDF. The plateaus (city hills) are made from 5cm Jackofoam, and the roads are cut from Capaline. Space is left for a canal and buildings.
This picture shows the construction of the “ramps” that connects the “plateaus” to the road system. It was important to make them wide enough to fit a Landraider and the angle so that models will not “fall over”.
In the corners of the plateaus I made an impact crater so that a vehicle can decent in other areas than from the ramps (taking a difficult terrain test of course).
Since I use melted resin as water effect, I had to “close” the edge of the canal so that the foam does not melt, so I came up with this design.
Applying my PVA glue/plaster/concrete/sand gupmix. I also used various platicard strips, and parts from the city kits, to mimic support of both the walls surrounding the city canal and the plateaus.
The last picture during the building phase. All the details are in place, sand glued on and the gupmix applied.
The next series of pictures will show the completion of the board (providing I have luck with pouring the hot resin).

Cheers,

Ørnulv

11 February 2013

Prima Nocte - Battle Report - Chaos Space Marines vs Space Marines

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The small temple had stood in the valley since before the river had cut a wound down through it. Countless lives had been poured out over the flagstones over the centuries, and soaked through the soil to mix with the the brackish river water.
Before the sun rose, Zelos planned to add the cultists following his legionaries to the tally and bend the temple's bound spirits to his will.

In celebration of Ørnulv finishing his new gaming table, I brought 2000 points of my Word Bearers to face off against his Ultramarines. As I'm writing this, it's been almost a week since the game. Life's hard! ;)


Scenario: Crusade
Deployment: Vanguard Strike

Ørnulv had already set up terrain, so we just went ahead and rolled for table edges. Ørnulv won the roll, and forced me into the corner encircled by the river. We each placed two objectives; by the woods to the left in the picture above, by the temple ruins, in the crater across the river and behind the woods to the right.

I rolled for Night Fight, scoring a two. Ørnulv then deployed his entire army, save a single Land Speeder, covering the two objectives in his Deployment Zone in a blanket of blue. I deployed my Chaos Space Marines in a line abreast formation along the edge of my Deployment Zone from the leftmost woods towards where the river met the long table edge. Way back on the hill in my corner, more than 48" away from from the myriad of heavy weapons in Ørnulv's army, I placed my Defiler. He'd have to advance for a turn or two if he wanted to be rid of it! I left a mob of Cultists, a squad of Terminators and squadron of Bikes in Reserves.

I declined to Seize the Initiative, thinking it better to retain the last move towards the end of the game.

Turn one

Ørnulv left the Defiler to its own devices, and advanced only a few inches before opening fire. One of the Rhinos had lost a hull Point and my Vindicator was burning brightly by the time the fusillade ended, earning the Ultramarines a Victory Point for First Blood and giving Ørnulv a one point lead.

I raced my two Rhinos across the river, reasoning that if I could Assault Ørnulv's Tactical squad holding the objective behind the woods around round three he'd have to focus on countering my attack and redeploying to retain/regain control of the objective rather than any plan he had to come across the river and take any of mine. The Defiler took out three Devastators with a Battle Cannon shot, but the rest of the CSM shooting didn't amount to anything more than a couple of dead marines in the woods.


Turn Two

The single Land Speeder in Reserves came on this turn, and while it didn't do much this turn it'd be instrumental in how this game turned out in the end. The rest of the Ultramarines continued to consolidate their position and pour as much fire into the Word Bearers as possible, wrecking both Rhinos at least one turn too earlier than I'd hoped and leaving their occupants a little too far away. One of the Vindicators in particular dealt a serious blow by taking out six Chaos Legionaries as they exited their Rhino on my right flank. The squad from the other Rhino was reduced to just two models, each carrying a Meltagun.

In my turn my Terminators teleported in to support the very tenuous foothold I did have on the 'blue' side of the river, and to stop Ørnulv from outflanking my position with the aforementioned Vindicator and two Land Speeder Typhoons he'd moved up along the short table edge. I couldn't touch the Vindicator, but did manage to blow up one Typhoon and wreck the other. The Defiler fired clean across the table at a Tactical squad with Plasma weapons backing up the Vindicator. After a follow-up Plasma Cannon salvo from the Obliterators, just the heavy weapon specialist and two Battle Brothers remained.


Turn Three

With the Typhoons now gone, the Ultramarines Vindicator and remaining marines from the Combat Squad backed away from the Terminators. An annoyingly accurate round of fire saw only one Anointed remaining. Further fire saw a few more Legionaries by the temple removed, but the cultists that had started in reserves were moving down the slope towards that position. Several shots were fired at the two Word Bearers with Meltaguns, but they made good use of the cover provided by the temple and avoided any harm. The Land Speeder with Multi-Meltas moved as fast as possible out on my left flank

The Obliterators that had been hanging out in a crater near my long table edge, being pretty much ineffective all game, saw a golden opportunity when one of the Ultramarines Vindicators presented its side armour to fire at my Terminators. Only one of them actually managed to hit with its Lascannon, and even then had to settle for Stunning it.


Turn Four

The Multimelta Land Speeder crossed the river on my left flank but didn't quite make it to within 12". The Defiler remained undamaged. Most of the centrally positioned Ultramarines focused on the Word Bearers melta squad, reducing it to a single model that failed it's Break test (6+5) and fell back almost to the table edge (6+6). The Marines on my right flank focused on the single remaining Terminator until it too was gone.


This was not going well! I had been down a point since turn one and needed to do something to remedy the situation before it was too late - if it wasn't already. I realized Ørn had given me a chance at Line Breaker by moving his Land Speeder across the river, so I moved the Defiler down towards it and had it rip the little paper plane to shreds. The cultists that came on form Reserves a couple of turns earlier moved up and took control of the objective by the temple. My Bike Squadron came in from Reserves over on the other side of the table, moving up behind the wreck of the Land Speeder. They took out the last three Marines from the closest Tactical Squad, and my remaining Melta squad took two hull points off the Vindicator on that flank.


Turn Five

...and then Night fell. At the roll of a dice, the massive long-range advantage the Ultramarines had enjoyed for four turns pretty much went away. The woods and the temple had offered decent cover thus far, but from here on out all the cultists had to do was to hug the ground and take the few bullets with specific names on them. The Ultramarines was making no moves to cross the river, Ørnulv apparently content with a one-point win. He did take the time to send all the Word Bearers on the right flank back to the Warp. All save the two Aspiring champions, that is.


In my center, the Cultist just adjusted their positions a little. On my left, the Defiler moved and ran to try and get far enough across the river. On my right flank, I had the two Aspiring Champions. They had a shot at pulling the closest Tactical Squad off of one of Ørnulv's objectives. If the game ended after this turn, that could actually win the game for me. Both the champions made it into close combat just fine, and I decided to challenge with the Bike champion because he'd be harder for Ørn's Librarian (and Warboss!) to wound. It wasn't enough, and I lost both my models to no dead Ultramarines. To top it off, Ørn rolled a three for the Sweeping Advance roll and moved right back into control range of his objective.


Fortunately for me, the game didn't end there. The Ultramarines consolidated their positions and fired pot-shots at whatever they could see in the darkness. I lost a few more cultists, and the two lone Melta gunners, but everybody held their nerves.

When my turn came around, I moved the Defiler up towards the Ultramarine Dreadnought with Twin Lascannons and Missile Launcher. The Dreadnought had been firing at the Defiler for the last few turns, but nothing had come of it. I declared the assault and rolled the dice. With what was probably the luckiest dice-roll I made all game, The defiler made it across the ten inches separating it from the Dreadnought. A couple of Strength 6 attacks was not enough to kill the possessed war machine, but the six Strength 10 attachs from the Defiler was more than enough to kill the Ultramarine hero a second time. More importantly though, as I (with more glee that is becoming of a gentleman gamer) explained after the dice had decided that the game ended there: The one Victory Point that the Defiler making it into his Deployment Zone granted me turned his game long one-point win into a tie.


Ultramarines: 3+3+1 VPs
Word Bearers: 3+3+1 VPs

A good, exiting game and a worthy opening act on the new Rural table. Looking forward to many more!

3 February 2013

The aftermath

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Saturday evening was spent at Ørnulv's battle bunker for a brilliant game and really good home made burgers.
The game was intense, and after the last dice had rolled, we had a tie (more on the game later).
As I woke up this morning I had some nice ideas for my Necrons army, some based on something I read and some nice tips Ørn gave me yesterday.

So after some late breakfast it was off to Outland, and here is the result:



So the what I thought was 2 annihilation barges or 2 stalkers attacking the flanks, with some wraiths.
And then 10 Deathmarks, maybe in a night scythe. The deathmarks will be used as a suicide squad to take out heavy infantry, with their sniper rifles that always wounds their marked squad on a 2+.

Any nice tips?

Shrine of the Aquila – Ørnulv´s February 2013 work in progress # 1

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It’s been one of those very nice and long weekends! I have played two great games on my new desert table, and also found time to work on my “hobby pledge” for February. Can a weekend get any better?

After “ending” my work on my city terrain several years ago, I had lots of various bits and parts left. I also acquired a couple of sets from Linus some years ago, one of them was the “Aquila”. I have always wanted to build one more “monumental building” to go with my city table, so I bought a couple of extra kits and “dived right in”. One of the goals was to use "all" of the parts that where “undamaged”, and I also wanted a building that was intact; meaning I would have to handle removing floors in order to be able to use different levels (hobby tip - GW fantasy movement trays works great) during war gaming (as well as for painting purposes). I started assabling - confident I had plenty of parts for the project.... As it turned out the building became so big I needed some extra panels, thx Jørn fore coming to my rescue!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the assembled building.
As I am currently also working on my new city table (and my “servitors in the crypt” are working late elsewhere this week ;) ), I am not sure if I am able to paint this one before the end of February. But at least the assembly is finished.

Cheers,
Ørnulv