ToMG Week ... whatever number we're on now :P

So this is my latest hand in, I've added in a Chaplain (who doesn't love a mad priest who makes your combat unit stabbier), my Thunderfire with Techmarine as well as an entire Imperial Guard Detachment. OK I cheated with the Guard, they're re-based ones from last years ToMG, but they've only been put in to shut certain people (person) up. Now for some pics:

Todays Pics

The pics from todays game. 12x8 table with 5v3, allies vs axis at over 10k per side. Had to cut it short but it was a good game with many laughs unlike the apoc 40k games.

We shall fight them on the tables

On friday i'm heading down to the local club for an annual event. It's the annual Flames of War game where several of us take a 16 foot by 8 foot table, place everything in our armies on the short edges and spend a whole day just playing 1 massive game of blow up as much as you can. It's probably the only time my artillery will ever be out of range :P

I'll try and get some pics taken and uploaded, although some armies (my Brits included) wont be painted or are painted badly, it'll be awesome to see so many players and models in a single game just there to have a laugh. I've got roughly 5k if i remember correctly but that isn't much when someone is taken 15k of Russians.

A Crushing Blow

Today i suffered what I feel to be my first major defeat. I have been defeated before but not like this, not 16-2. The small unit sizes and reliance on (albeit only a couple of) reserves coupled with bad dice rolls doomed me from the start. While I am proud of taking down the stormraven and dreadknight and almost a purifier squad (1 stubborn knight refused to be killed off) I have decided to use scouts only rarely. They can't hit the broadside of a battle barge from 3 feet away with a homing rocket launcher if they tried. full rounds of shooting with them each turn for the whole game, only about 7 hits none of which did any damage.

Need more marines and a stormraven for definite. Here's hoping for a strikeforce for christmas :)

Tales Hand In Number 4

So the fourth ToMG hand in was the other day and this time round it's Inquisition Week. So added in is an Inquisitor, His Henchmen and a Valkyrie to carry them around. Henchmen are simple, a Jokaero and some Stormtroopers. Ever seen 30" range hot shot lasguns? Nope me neither, I keep rolling rending with the monkey but it will happen one day :P

Clan Raukaan - A First Look

So i've finally got my hands on the Raukaan supplement and i'm quite happy with it. Firstly you get a load of background which the Iron Hands were lacking. Secondly the relics are much better than codex ones. Gorgons Chains for example, they have the same effect as the shield eternal but +1 to FNP instead of adamantium will. As the character looses wounds it's effects get weaker, but when hammer time has 2 wounds left he still has a 3+ invul just no eternal warrior which probably wont matter when he's that low on health. It also leaves his other hand free which means he can take another weapon. I'm thinking lightening claw for +1 attack (2 specialist weapons) and he can then hit normal guys at normal initiative and save the hammer for the big guys. To trade the shield for the claw and chains takes him up from 240 to 250 points, back down to 240 if i take his digital weapons off of him as well. that's not bad at all.

Other relics include Minforge Stave, 15 points for a force thunder hammer that is not a specalist weapon. Not bad, just need a libby to start putting this to use. May use it at an invasion event. Then there is Betrayers Bane, a 25 point master crafted combi-melta that can fire the melta shots as many times as I want. About time marines started taking spare ammo for their guns :)

Finally warlord traits. All but 2 of them will benefit hammer time much more from these than marine or rulebook ones. +1 feel no pain, fearless, crusader bubble. They'll all be more welcome than fear and marines in 12" using his leadership for morale.

Overall I think i'm going to like using this supplement.

ToMG - The 3rd Hand In

Today was ToMG hand in 3. My added units were 10 scouts with a land speeder storm and some Honour Guard with a Drop Pod. I hate painting scouts :(

Here are James Allen's Grey Knights. So far these guys and mine are probably nemesis's with each other.

Matt Potter's Dark Angels next. I need to get a game against these soon, don't think I've actually played against him before.

Craig's Necrons now and they're coming along nicely. Definitely stand out from the norm of Necron armies.




That's it from the entries so far. There should be more coming up in a few days and I can't wait to see certain peoples armies now we're further into this.

Something big is coming...

There will be a Centerpiece Conversion section for Tale of Many Gamers this year and I fully intend to outdo not only myself but everyone else in the competition too by creating my most ambitious model to date. Szeras, Commissar Lord Vader, Marbo Fett and even the All Terrain Armoured Russ have nothing on this.

You have been warned.

Champion of Iron

This is my almost done chapter champion. All that needs doing is the base and some BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD splattered over him for added "you're screwed when i get to you!"

Honour and Glory

So today I built up a new unit. I've proxied it before building them and people already don't like them :)

More Fantasy

This is how our latest Fantasy game started. It ended with a few lizards and rats scrapping in the middle and some confused elves turning into rats :P

1500 Points, 2 More Games (well 1.5)

2 more games, 2 more wins. Although I do admit game 2 needs replaying so it only counts as half until next week when we have a re-match.

More Games, More Points

Today I saw the field of battle against James, who previously beat me with his Tau, and Dave whose Daemons once again took my Iron Hands down a peg.

The Inquisition

Before I start I just want to make sure you guys know that I have not read a copy of this myself. I'm going off of what I've been told and what I've read online.

No Pics :(

The Fantasy game went pretty well. It was Skaven, Orcs and Dark Elves VS Wood Elves, Lizard Men and High Elves. I'm sorry there are no pics but I got a bit distracted :)

My list was:

Hero:
Plague Priest
- Plague Furnace

Core:
50 Clan Rats
- Full Command
- Spears and Shields

40 Skaven Slaves

Special:
20 Plague Monks
- Full Command

Rare:
Hellpit Abomination

It was pretty much me VS Wood Elves on one end, Orcs VS Lizards in the middle and the rest of the Elves fighting at the other end with a bit of crossing over. Hellpits are good against birds, struggle to kill trees and slaves don't do a lot at all but 40 for 80 points can't be argued with.

I managed to take the Wood Elves down to a single tree that the Hellpit couldn't manage to kill (should have paid for warpstone spikes). Orcs got crushed in the middle and the Dark Elves took out the High Elves on the other end. Win for the Bad Guys!

If I could do it differently I'd take a Grey Seer instead of the Plague Priest and Warpstone Spikes on the Hellpit. Maybe trade out the slaves and Monks for Stormvermin. Dreaded 13th would have come in pretty handy that game.

I've got another game next week at the same points but 2v2 instead of 3v3 so i'll make a different list and see how it goes.

Fantasy

Not many people know this but I have a small Fantasy army. These don't come out very often though and most of the models are unpainted. As you may have guessed from the picture I'm a Skaven player.

Another Loss

Today my Iron Hands suffered a second loss. This time against some Daemons of Slaanesh. Can't really get more humiliating for Iron Hands can it?

There were 2 fairly large unit of Daemonettes, a Herald and a Keep of Secrets. Herald and 1 unit decided to outflank while the rest started on the table. One thing I learnt was that Daemonettes are really, REALLY fast. 

In the end it came down to the above picture, which was taken right after the Daemonettes charged me. It took them a while and cost them a marine but the Iron Hands killed all of the Daemon scum bar 1 stubborn crab-ostrich-lady-thing whose survival ensured the Keeper of Secrets got into the combat and started munching on my poor marines.

From what I can tell is my army can't deal with numbers backed up by something big. In this case Daemons and a Keeper, in the previous case Firewarriors and a Riptide. Maybe next time I'll start the marines on the ground and use the pods as cover/road blocks to try and divert them into bottlenecks for the thunderfire.

Techmarine Almost Done

Here is my Techmarine conversion. There are Forge World bits, tactical squad bits and thanks to The Watcher hopefully a Dark Angels hooded helmet too.

The colours were difficult to decide. Iron Hands are black, Techies are red and Chaplains are also black. Iron Fathers are a mix of all of these roles. I have decided on red torso and backpack with the rest of the armour black to show he's a bit of everything and mix things up a bit.

More pics when he's done.

Another Couple of Games Done

Bit backwards for my IH, but cool never the less.

Today I've had another couple of 600 point games, one against some Imperial Fists and another against Grey Knights.

Iron Hands First Loss

So today my Iron Hands suffered their first loss against James Allen's tournament Tau list. Some poor rolling didn't help but neither did some of the tactical choices I made.

Battle Reports

I've done a couple of battle reports! They're linked over at the side if you want to check them out. I'll hopefully be doing a few of these and i'll make sure to put up a post when new ones come out.

Just Dropping In

Today i've been painting up my second drop pod. Much better than the first one. I've decided Dreadnoughts and HQ's get the scheme of the first pod, everyone else gets the scheme of my new one. Oh and yes, yes that is the Imperial/Crimson Fists logo on the new pod. It's the closest to the Iron Hands one that comes in the kit.

Speaking of chapter logos, i tried some free handing today. Did not go well at all. The brush i used had a decent tip but i think a fine detail brush would have been much better. I think i should also try it on something bigger first, such as a banner, so i get a used to it and work my way down to shoulder pads.

Vanguard VS Honour Guard

So i was talking to someone the other day and mentioned some plans for my Iron Hands. One of those plans was to include an Honour Guard for my Chapter Master for a tough assault unit that can handle being on it's own if needed. "Why not use Vanguard instead, they're cheaper?" was his response. I've seen responses to things like this before. At base cost, yes Vanguard are cheaper, but that's base cost only.

A single Vanguard with a power weapon is 34 points.
A single Honour Guard is 25 points base.

What difference do those 9 points make? What makes Vanguard so much better?
Well firstly the Vets take up an elites slot. Not really a positive as i want dreadnoughts in these, maybe some Assault Centurions.
Cheap jump packs? Not handy at all as they'll be in a drop pod or stormraven anyway.
Heroic Intervention? Can't see it ever getting used.

Lets try this from the other side. What makes Honour Guard so much better?
For 9 LESS points you get the same stat line (with +1 LD), a power weapon, a bolt pistol, a boltgun, doens't take up a force org slot and everyone has artificer armour. This gives them better shooting, better armour and the same combat punch for 9 points less per model. Oh and the chapter champ who ensures my Chapter Master batters as many people in combat as possible. That's not even counting the 25 point Chapter Banner that does not replace any wargear and gives the unit +1 attack and nearby marines a re-roll on morale and pinning tests (champ has 6 attacks on the charge with that!!).

5 Vanguard with power weapons is 170 points.
6 Honour Guard/5 Honour Guard with the Chapter Banner are 170 points.

Are Vanguard really that much better? Apparently not.

Getting Ahead of the Game: ToMG Part 2

This is the second hand in for ToMG completed. This time i've added a drop pod (which i now know what i'm doing, not doing the others like that!) and another combat squad.

Here is the second Combat Squad. Grav Gun and Combi-Grav. Yet again the sarge has a combi-weapon and a boltgun. It'll be a recurring theme in the army. The others should also have a white stripe along the vent on top of the helmet like normal Iron Hands sergeants seem to have.

With the pod i painted the metalic bits silver and drybrushed Tin Bitz on it to try and get a bit a damage on the way in. That didn't quite work. Next time i'll stick to doing the same thing i did with the normal troops. The annoying part though is the models look worse with the flash but you can't see them properly without it.

As Requested

As requested here is a picture of a funny looking space ship.

ToMG Part 1

This is my first hand in for Tale of Many Gamers. My Chapter Master and a Combat Squad with Plasma Gun and Combi-Plasma.

The Chapter Master i've shown before, but now he's 100% done. In games he has Artificer Armour, Shield Eternal (the backpack generates a personal force field that has the same effect to satisfy WYSIWYG), Thunder Hammer and Digital Weapons for a meaty 240 points. That may seem like a lot but this guy will be one tough son of a bitch to try and get warlord from.

This is my first Combat Squad. The reason the sarge has a boltgun and combi-plasma is simple. The pistol wont be used. He's coming down in a drop pod so if he ends up in combat it's because he's been charged. A chainsword would be worse than the pistol as at least i could charge after firing the pistol. He's having a combi-weapon as that effectively doubles the firepower of my special weapons on the turn they land. Rule of Cool then kicks in which states duel wielding a pair of 2 handed weapons is badass. I took inspiration from this picture right here:

For the second hand in we've got a second troops choice and a unit of our choice. I've checked and dedicated transports can be placed into the "own choice" rather than same slot as the unit if we want. So my second hand in will be combat squad 2 with Grav Gun and Combi-Grav and a Drop Pod. I should have those done fairly soon, just need to work out exactly HOW i'm going to paint the pod.

Wrath of Iron!

Today i've got some painting done and have some more Iron Hands to show off including my Chapter Master. He's still got a few details left such as the odd purity or piece or rope but he's almost there.

Oh and here is most of a tac squad done too :)

Raukaan

So. My Iron Hands are getting a supplement. Guess November (presumably) will be a good month for me (but not my wallet). Suppose I should pick Wrath of Iron back up and try and guess what i'll be seeing in this supplement.

LOTS O' LOOT

Today my uncle gave me several boxes of old gaming stuff. Hence forth the stuff shall be known as the loot.

Firstly is a box of old High Elves, including 40 blokes with bows, 43 dudes with spears and shields, 14 horses, 3 uber arrow things, a flag, and 12 guys with swords, shields and bows with arrows. I do not play Elves so these guys mean nothing but they look cool.

Next up in The Loot is a tin of Danish Legend Biscuits which expired 30/12/1991. As you can imagine i was a bit worried about opening this one up. Luckily instead of mutated biscuits of doom i got quite a few constipated beaky marines, roughly 30 at a guess and possibly rogue trader ones at that (still need to go through these). Included as well were 5 old metal Eldar and a metal Rapier Laser Destroyer along with a ninja on a hex base. Marines use ninjas right?

Finally and one of the things that really caught my eye was a fleet. This fleet is apparently for "Star Fleet Battles" and is a Star Trek Federation fleet. There are 3 Miranda Classes (USS Reliant was one of these), 6 Constitution Refits (IE Enterprise-A) and 6 unknown but big and funny looking ships. Most of these needed repairs, but they're mostly done. Oh and there was a single Klingon Bird of Prey in there too. Not really an even match up, reverse Kobyashi Maru perhaps?

The First of Many

My first Iron Hands marine is done. The Primarch model so to speak. It's a simple scheme, but not as simple as my Guard. Black spray, Codex Grey drybrush (Mechanicus Standard is the new version i think), details such as eyes and hands done in what ever is required and then Nuln Oil wash with Stirland Mud texture on the base. The picture seems to bring out the drybrushing more than you can actually see on the model. It's simple, it's effective and it doesn't take too long at all. Perfect for ToMG :)

ToMG: The Return!

Tale of Many Gamers is BACK!

For those who don't know ToMG is a marketing thing used by the local GW to get people to start up new armies. Each week you add 2 things to the army (usually units, but sometimes back story or objective markers are thrown in too) until you've built up a decent sized army. This year games against other ToMG forces are also being added for bonus points.

The first year i added to my Necrons, last year i repaired and added to my Guard. This year it's Iron Hands from almost scratch (2 combat squads, 2 drop pods and a commander is what i've got so far). I plan on an orbital assault force, so drop pods and storm ravens. The Artisan and The Watcher will be taking part too.

Keep an eye out for updates on all of our armies as the competition continues!

So, it begins...

This guy, this guy right here, is the start of my Iron Hands. In games he's a Chapter Master with the Shield Eternal, a Thunder Hammer, Artificer Armour along with an Auspex and Digital Weapons if i've got the points spare. He's made using 4 kits. Lord Executioner for the body, Master of the Relics for the back pack, Vanguard Veterans for the Hammer and finally the forge world Character Upgrade Kit for the head. I'll post more pics as i build up the army and when they're painted too.

Why the Internet is Wrong

The internet, especially for us gamers, is a very vocal place filled with keyboard warriors and think-they-know-it-alls. It is also extremely negative. So many times i have seen people moan that "unit/codex X is worthless" when they've seen what one person on the internet said about one experience. The Internet is wrong.

Lets take Chaos Space Marines for example. I have seen many times people say the only good things in the book are cultists (because they're dirt cheap) and helldrakes (because they're helldrakes). They've also said Daemon Prince is worthless now he's not an eternal warrior.

I play pure Nurgle to the extent that if it can't take MoN it doesn't go in. That means i have not used a helldrake. Ever. Chaos Space Marines are currently my second best army (out of 4) loosing only to Necrons and even then not by a lot. I also field Gary (my Daemon Prince) and a unit of Spawn. According to the Internet that is they are some of the worst possible units to take in the book, yet they are some of my top units. It all comes down to how you use them and whether you can get past the negatives. Gary flies up the board with a 3+ cover save turn 1 then smacks the ever living snot out of what ever squad he finds. Spawn are incredibly fast and couldn't care less about that terrain in their way, they can also (potentially) put out an ungodly number of attacks and nurgle makes them T6. OK no save but you've got to wound them first and they're only 180 points for 5 beasts with T6 and 3 wounds each. Plague Marines. 1 point more than in the old codex. Internet's response "OH NO THEY'VE GONE UP THEY'RE WAAAAAAAYYY OVER COSTED NOW". my response "poisoned CCW's for 1 point, FANTASTIC".

I would move on to Dark Angels next but The Watcher (yes i've found you, and The Artisan too) has already done one on them - Link

Spam Stats

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Just wanted to give you real guys the heads up just in case.

FOR THE EMPEROR!!

Today i actually got to play against the new marines book. 1k points my necrons vs his "imperial fists" (some kid, roughly 8, using some proxies and half unpainted plastic grey/half ultramarine colours). Although i won 5-1 he didn't make it easy.

What i learnt was that marines are cheap now. Because of this i was facing lots of tacticals, some sternguard, an ironclad and a vindicator with a libby who drew puppet master and psychic shriek for good measure. I was outnumbered by marines at 1k with my necrons, that's never happened before and it was scary.

Bolter Drill is powerful. might not sound like a lot but if you have a lot of bolters you will be re-rolling a lot of 1's.

FUCKING VINDICATORS!!!!! (don't give a crap what the internet says gauss is NOT an instant win for necrons against vehicles, never has been and never will be)

Deathmarks may start on the board but turn 2 they'll be rolling to come in from reserve (last 3 games they've mishapped from the veil on turn 1 and gone into reserve).

Sterngaurd kill warriors really easily.

Flyers aren't as good as they sound (kill 1 marine then arc onto my own warriors killing 2. GG necron pilot).

Overall i was impressed, if someone with more experience had used that list they could have tabled me. I had 1 objective, First Blood and Slay the Warlord, he had Warlord and there was 1 objective i was only just contesting. Another turn and i would have lost, not doubt about that. Makes me want to start my Iron Hands sooner!

The Flesh is Weak

In my last post i mentioned about starting Iron Hands. The reason for this is simple. I like Drop Pods. I like Dreadnoughts. Despite the grumblings of the internet they work in 6th ed (oh but hull points nerfed them majorly! Bullshit, try telling that to one of my Ironclads!) and giving them It Will Not Die just makes them better than ever (and IWND drop pods is simply funny).

My plan for the army is fairly simple. A few Tactical Squads provide the bulk of the army, with some Devastator Centurions providing back up (they're so much nicer in person than the pics) and an Assault Marine unit for rapid response around my main force. Then i start raining dreadnoughts around the enemy, with a tooled up chapter master and some Sternguard/more Tacticals in another pod to land later for additional support. Maybe throw in a whirlwind with a near by master of the forge in larger points games (more dreadnoughts = more fun).

As i go about creating this army i'll post updates on here. I currently have a converted Chaplain (one of my favourite models from my previous marine force, couldn't let him go) and a pair of drop pods. Hopefully i'll be getting the strike force soon (such a good box, you save about £50 and get a reasonable 1k list) and that'll really boost me up to the sort of thing i'm after.

Armies on Parade

This year i entered armies on parade. Considering i threw the thing together in a week it didn't come out too bad however i only came 3rd (agree with who came first but second place had nothing almost nothing on it).

There it is. The story behind it is that the chaos and guard were allies to defeat the necrons, now the necrons are all dead they've turned on each other. This allowed me to get the guard in as an allied detachment to show off the battle without having to glue them down as you would have before 6th edition.

The board you can kinda see to the left is a 1k nid army, built and painted in a week on a board that was sprayed black and then sprayed white. That was it and it came second. Top left board "Regicide" was a chess board using the Dark Vengeance against Assault on Black Reach with a few extra models thrown in (assault marines as knights, chaplains as bishops etc) and i agree that should have won overall.

I'll reuse the board next year but re paint the building so it matches the defense line and probably use my up coming Iron Hands instead. More on the marines later though. 

C'mon guys, enough already.

I've been doing my rounds of the forums again, and i'm getting sick of it. GW bashing.

As usual it's one small thing that's been blown out of proportion and people are going through the motions of "how dare they do this!", "i'm never buying from them again!" and "this is just sickening!". Really? Sickening? Some of you guys need to stop focusing on the negatives so much.

Don't get me wrong, i think GW do charge high prices and there are alternatives out there that are just as good as the warhammers for less. But bitching and moaning on the internet wont help anything. every other forum topic these days somehow reverts to being completely anti-GW. I saw one where someone asked for advice about a DA list, which changed from being helpful to how crap the DA are (which is complete bull) and then changed into another GW hate thread, now that poor guy who just wanted some help is now being spammed by "screw GW" repeatedly.

This hobby, like any other, is about having fun. Like GW, hate GW. I couldn't care less, but stop turning good topics bad and focusing ONLY on the negatives. Yes there are negatives, all companies have something bad you can moan at, but there are positives as well.

My Fancy New C'tan

Today i decided to make a C'tan, but i don't like the Deceiver or the Nightbringer and i'm not paying £95 for the transendant one. So what i did was take the tomb spyder i've had for ages but not built and get some wraiths and do some kit bashing! This is the result:

Looks like a buff wraith, and i'm fine with that. I have a unique C'tan and some cool spares to go on my Armies on Parade board. Now all i have to do it paint him up.