Multiple Combats - Jørn's very belated January update

I've been hammering away on this (off and on) for close to three weeks now... About bloody time I stop procastenating and actually post it!

I have made (a little) progress both on project my Big Terrain Project and finally got started on the New Army Project too. More on these very soon, I promise!

I managed to get no less than six games in too, putting me well ahead of the curve to reach the goal of playing at least forty games of 40K this year. I won't be doing separate reports on any of these, but here's a quick rundown and a few pics:

The 16th - Trond's Eldar, 2000 points
It was week three, and I'd yet to play a game this year. Trond to the rescue - or so it seemed.

When he arrived, we rolled up Annihilation and Dawn of War. I won the initiative, and deployed a CSM squad around their Rhino close to the centre of the table. Trond elected to keep everything off the table, ready to move on turn one. In my first turn I moved the CSM squad back into their Rhino, and backed off down a road. The rest of my army moved onto the table to the right of the Rhino. Trond used the entire length of the table when he move on. In his shooting phase he rolled two tens and one eleven when checking the distance his War Walkers and two Bright Lance Wave Serpents. The Berzerkers' Land Raider promptly blew up, and the Rhino in front of my other Land Raider was Immobilized.

In my turn two, I immobilized my remaining Land Raider trying to go through the ruined Shrine of the Aquila. I got off a couple of shots with my Obliterators, and killed a Vyper or War Walker. Trond, already up one kill point, moved everything he had up to his right hand flank - out of line of Sight and Range of most of my remaining firepower.

I figure I could see how this would proceed: Trond would be keeping all his softer stuff where my Obliterators couldn't see it, and focus fire on my Rhinos. I'd be lucky to get even a couple of VPs, and his dice would really have to go cold for him not to net at least three. I let him shooot at me some more, and forfeited the game after his second turn to spare him the embarrassment... (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!!)

The 18th - André's Dark Eldar 1500 points
A couple of days later I popped over to André's place to beat on his Dark Eldar a bit. Once more, we rolled Annihilation and Dawn of War.

Since the last time I played André, he'd been building a couple of Venoms and accompanying Blasterborn squads (Isn't that the term?) of three or four models with three blasters each. He also had an Archon with an Incubi squad in a Raider, two/three Ravagers (all lances) and an assortment of Warrior squads also in Raiders.
This game he managed to focus his fire and time his assault a lot better than previous games, and I ended up with my army pretty much holed up in one table quarter with most of the Dark Eldar out of range. I managed to down the HQ Raider early with the single pair of Obliterators that turned up round two. With a Run roll of five (or was it six?) they still got assaulted and wiped out. The most notable serie of events was probably when the other two Obliterator squads as well as the small Terminator squad gunned down everyone except the Archon and a single Incubi - who proved to be more than up for the task of killing the remaining 2+/5+ models in close combat.
In the end I was stuck with five kill points to André's seven.

The 19th - Linus's Nurgle CSMs, 1500 points
The third game this week was against Linus and his Nurgle themed CSM army. Guess which Mission and Deployment we rolled up!?! That's right... Annihilation and Dawn of War.

I've always struggled a little with his Daemon Prince/Plague Marines/Landraider lists (Probably more than just "a little" too, I'm honest.), and this time was no exception. While his Rhinos are just as squishy as my own, the added Land Raider and two Vindicators ment I had to focus my fire elsewhere long enough for them to get to good positions. When the Berzerkers concistently killed a model and change below average, and my Obliterators failed to do anything at all in the last two rounds of the game, Linus won with four Kill points to my three.

The 24th - Trond's Eldar, 1500 points
The only thing to do to break a loosing streak? Play another game! Trond came back with a pretty much transport-free list. Not quite a standard Foot-Eldar army, but about as close as he'd ever been. Again the mission was Annihilation, but at least we got the Spearhead deployment for once.

I'm not going to go into details here, because... Well... They're a bit foggy to be honest. Suffice to say that even though both our tactics were relatively sound, the dice went absolutely bonkers. An Eldar Avatar not even hitting once on the turn he charged my Berzerkers, and then getting chopped apart. The entire Berzerker squad subsequently dying to a squad of Dire Avengers. A CSM Aspiring Champion going three rounds of Close Combat against a Harlequin Troupé Master and his cronie without anyone being able to finish anyone off. A squad of Fire Dragons running like the little girlies that they are from three Terminators (Granted, one was my Coryphaus.) only to catch two or three Plasma Cannon muffins in the very last turn.
All in all, it was enough to make Trond do a rant on his hatred for dice a couple of weeks ago.

The 30th - Trond's Eldar, 1500 points
For what would be the last game of the month, I drove down to Trond's place. We ended up playing a couple of games on the old and battered - but still very much playable - terrain he's got stashed away. Among those terrain pieces are the very first ones I made - some 17-18 years ago.

Of course, I didn't think to bring a camera.
...but surely the host should be able to provide.

Our first mission was Seize Ground with Dawn of War deployment. After Round three, my army was still largely unscathed and in position to hold at least two and contest another two of the five objectives. The Eldar force, on the other hand had lost most of its heavy hitters, largely tanks to my Obliterators hitting and wounding with practically every single shot and Trond being totallyunable to make any saves whatsoever. Only a masochist would have wanted to grind through the last couple of turns, so we ended it right there to be able to play another game in stead.

For our second game we rolled Capture & Control (aka Roll Dice and Tie) with another Dawn of War deployment.
I won the Initiative yet again, and deployed the Rhino with the Berzerkers about as close to Trond's objective as possible. Trond deployed his Avatar, Storm Guardians and Dire Avengers around his objective. First turn I moved the Rhino full throttle straight towards the Eldar position, making sure to deploy all my Smoke markers to ward off any incoming fire. I'd left my Obliterators and Terminators in Reserve so only had my CSM squads in their Rhinos to move in from my table edge.

Trond brought the rest of his army on and opened up on the Berzerkers' Rhino, finally getting a few shots past my smoke screen and assaulting them in the ruins of their transport. Enough of the Berzerkers survived, however. In particular the one with a Personal Icon. Enter the Obliterators, and pass the Promethium. Did you know Harlequins burn like paper dollies?!?

In the end Trond managed to see me off his objective, but had nothing left to go and contest mine. Finally! An utterliy devastating game with reasonable dice on both sides. A glorious end to a month with more games than any I can remember.

Dark Eldar Raiders - ØRNULVS FEBRUARY 2012 PROJECT # 1

My “first Dark Eldar army list” includes 4 Raiders with Dark Lances. I wanted to unite the Raiders with the Infantry units I have made, so I constructed the crew on 2 Raiders with standard Kabalite armour and 2 with Kabalite/Wych armour. The latter could of course be used transporting Kabalite Warriors, but theme well with both my Wych units and Trueborn Units.

Painting Raiders takes a lot longer time than I had planned. The metal/lining colour scheme was a whole other undertaking on a larger model. In addition the process also meant painting 8 infantry models.

Filled with hate, rage, and the need to feed on others pain and fear, I recon the Dark Eldar will start mutilating and torturing as soon as possible (not waiting until they return to Commorragh after a raid). I therefore implemented elements of mutilated bodies and severed heads on the Raider decks. These could of course also represent “Grisly trophies”. So how did the Raiders turn out?

My 2 Kabalite Warrior Raiders:

Mutilated bodies, spilled guts and severed heads:

More gory details….

Close up of one of the "Wych/Trueborn Raiders":

The finished ”Raider Fleet”:

What to do next?

40K Abroad - GW in Berlin

Berlin. Sure, the history and pictures are impressive, but nothing beats visiting the real thing.

Sure, there are still areas suffering from the destruction after WWII, and even the sad attempt to rebuild parts of the city under communism. However, the majority of the old buildings that had a potential to be rebuilt, are rebuilt (one can still se plenty of bullet holes although they are “repaired”). Still there are buildings under renovation. Even during this process the Germans pay attention to "detail". Canvas showing the building, as it will look after restoring, is hung all around the supporting structures. I love London, but the gothic style of the colossal buildings, all surrounded by wide roads (streets), wide pavements and green midsections, makes this city stand out! A city full of life, hope and expectation of the future. Full of restaurants, museums and excellent shopping facilities, indeed a city worth visiting!

A visit to one of the local GW stores is mandatory. So after a couple of beers I found one of the local GW shops only 500m from my hotel. The store was quite big, with 6 gaming tables, a large painting table and combined demo table. Lots of people visited on the Saturday when the new LOTR supplements where revealed. As always the “crew” where service minded. It was a little odd to se all the books etc in German (only forge world books and black library books where in English). What disappointed me was the table view standard of the models on display, and that most of the players were allowed to field unpainted (ore even unsprayed) models. Kudos on the standard in GW Oslo (models on display and on their gamming tables).

Nonetheless, the EURO was favourable, and therefore some items found its way into my suitcase. The most impessive "item" in the store was this full size Space Marine:

Fore those with an historical interest, I enclose a photo of me in front of the Reichstag. A building that was close to destroyed – still under reconstruction – a true inspiration fore new Imperial terrain projects! And I must admit - standing on the stairs one cant help feeling the urge to build an imperial guard army (of course with no reference to the darkness this building has witnessed in the past in reality - intended!).

I HATE DICE!

To sum it up.... I hate dice...
So from now on, anyone who wants to play wargames with me must abide by the following rules:
Rule nr 1: NO DICE! All dice rolls are considered to be the mathematical average of the dice toss.
Rule nr 2: Abide by rule nr one!
Subsequently it can be decided by a game of poker, 5 card stud, or stone, scissor-paper, or a short game of chineess checkers or another way of settling an outcome. I just don`t wanne see any more dice!! I hope that at least Ørnulv will agree with me ;)
If I had played Axis and Allies yesterday I would have won at the end of turn 1 no matter which army I had selected (The roll of one is a good thing in AA)

So for the remainder of this week I will not toss any more dice!

Dark Eldar Haemonculus - ØRNULVS JANUARY 2012 PROJECT # 2

After having spent considerable time on the 30 Wyches, I decided it was time for variation and a much smaller and quicker project. I therefore decided to build my two Haemonculus (HQ).

To date GW only produce two Heamonculus models. Urien Rakarth and a more “standard” Heamonculus (both Citadel Finecast). This is the first time I work with the “new” Citadel Finecast models. Sorry, I don’t like them. A lot of flashing and moulding lines has to be fixed, and the new resin is really “fragile” and “crisp”. Thank good my combat Arcon, Lelith and 10 Incubus models are in metal (for a future project when I receive more slate from Jørn and after the transports are built).

I decided not to use al the components in the kits, minimising the number of arms and gismos that probably would break during tabletop gaming. I use both models as "normal Heamonculus" so I they have to poses. I also decided to fix the hovering models by using brass rod rather than the standard “snake like tendrils” - in resin. Both are built with Liquefier gun (one from spare Scourges parts).

Looking forward to paint them :)