Salute 2015

Ah Salute. The one event I always go to. Always a good time and well worth the money to go. Unfortunately no pics from me this year but there were some things I wanted to talk about.

Firstly the queue to get in was just stupid this year. The way it was laid out was like someone was doing really well at Snake but about to fuck up. Then all of a sudden everyone just started moving towards the entrance. I don't know if it was planned or not but fuck it we got in there quicker :P

The boards as always were amazing. Beasts of War did a Hoth board with a huge Millennium Falcon and some very familiar looking models on it.

There were some guys that had a Battlestar Galactica board set up using the Full Thrust rules. The big ships were Revel kits and the the fighters custom 3D printed. Looked fantastic.

A team did a Resistance VS Scourge table for Dropzone Commander with underground bases that were just chock full of detail while Hawk Wargames themselves finished the big ship they started last year.

Spartan Games had both a Demo(ish) table and a display table for Halo: Fleet Battles. The reason for the "ish" after demo was because the guys demoing it didn't quite know what they were doing. 1 minute the Covenant are next to impossible to kill, the next their ships are made from wet paper bags. The models however do look incredibly pretty, for the both ships and the ground units.

I managed to get the big new GW figure case at 1/3 off (so only £50, thank you discount traders), the TOS era Enterprise, an ENT era Enterprise and a second USS Defiant as well as this bad boy:

That's right. I managed to get a hold of Deep Space 9 from the Dominion War OP Tournament. Only £40 as well (looking at about £100 on ebay). Considering it's a space station it's not actually as tough as I thought it would be at only 8 hull, 8 shields but it doesn't need to reload torpedoes so that's pretty good and it's only 44 points. Can't wait to put this thing on the table top tomorrow night against Owen's Dominion fleet. Will have to get pics for that as it's going to be a good one!! Especially as he doesn't know I've got this!

Skitarii List Idea and Second Model

Lets get the guy out the way first. I decided the next model I wanted to do was one of the Transuranic Arquebus's as it's big and pretty and full of details. Here he is

They might be taking ages but I am enjoying painting these guys up. Not sure how I'm going to do the Dunecrawler though. In pieces is probably the best way I think.

Now onto the list. It started as I wanted to know what I would actually take in a Battle Maniple Formation, and ended up as a list that I actually want to use. Depending on a reply from Forge World though there may be another Ironstrider going in there. I went for 1875 as that seems to be the standard these days.

Skitarii Battle Maniple Formation

10 Vanguard (240)
- Data Tether
- 3x Plasma Caliver
- Phosphor Blast Pistol
- Power Sword
- Conversion Field
- Pater Radium

10 Rangers (215)
- Omnispex
- 3x Arc Rifles
- Arc Pistol
- Arc Maul
- Conversion Field

5 Ruststalkers (190)
- Conversion Field
- Omniscient Mask

5 Infiltrators (205)
- Conversion Field
- Infoslave Skull

3x Ironstriders (165)

3x Dunecrawlers (355)
- 2x Neutron Laser
- Icarus Array

Other

Stormblade (505)
- 1x Set of Sponsons


You might be set there thinking "the Skitarii can't take Lords of War" and you are correct. What I can do though is go unbound and still take formations. So while the list is technically unbound I don't actually suffer from any of the negatives and still get that super shiny super heavy I'm saving up for. I mean, why can't the guys the build, own and maintain Baneblade chassis vehicles take them normally? As I mentioned before if Forge World say the Stormblades rules in their download page is the most up to date version I use the list above, if they say the Imperial Armour 1 Second Ed has the most current rules then it's 55 points cheaper which means another Ironstrider fits in perfectly.

Warlord of the Omnissiah

Not only is this guy my Vanguard Alpha he is also my Warlord and probably my best painted model to date. Now I've got the problem of keeping that up through the rest of the army but I wanted an army that looked good and pushed my painting so here is that start.

Unfortunately I can't do the rest of the Vanguard until the local GW manager can give me a lesson in making stuff glow. I want their guns that shoot irradiated bullets to glow in the classic vat-of-toxic-waste green. In the mean time though I've got plenty of Rangers to keep me busy.

Tournament Results

The first tournament at the local GW was overall a success. There were a couple of things that needed changing but the plan for this one was always to use it as a test to see what worked and what didn't. The main thing that everyone agreed should change is that everyone should play the same scenario as your Victory Points over the whole event decided position (with +5 points for a win) but each table rolled separately for their game. The downside to this was that some scenarios get objective cards out much quicker than others meaning those ones will probably score higher over all so that'll be changed for the next one.

I took the list that I put up the other day with the Melta Bomb instead of the relic.

GAME 1 - VS Adam's Unbound Power Armour

For his list Adam just took what he liked from pretty much every marine book which made it difficult keeping track of what was what at times. My Skitarii however took the challenge and scored a ton of tactical objectives while systematically taking out his units 1 by 1. The force of 10 rangers jumping out of a Chimera with BS 7 completely blew away most of a Death Company unit and the combat just cleaned them up thanks to the Pater Radium on my Warlord.

End of turn 1

GAME 2 - VS Nick's Speedy WWAAAAAGGGHH

Nick brought an interesting list with him. The Forge World character on a bike, a load of biker boyz, 3 planes (2 dakka jets and a bomber I believe) and a buggy for points filling. While his Orks didn't manage to score many objectives what they did do was "krump dem shiny 'umies a gud 'un". Although a lot of my stuff died I ended up scoring so my points from objectives that I ended up in the lead from this game alone.

GAME 3 - VS Glen's Blood Angels Elite

Glen took Mephiston, 9 TH/SS Termies with a flag, a Storm Eagle and a Skyshield with Ready for Take Off. I didn't find out until afterwards though that Glen had been told the day before NOT to include any Legacies of Glory as he does not have a copy of the rules for them ... so he went and put Legacy of Thall (?) on his Storm Eagle to increase it's Jink save to 3+ which saved it no end of times throughout the day and cost me the game against him. Not that I'm bitter about it or anything :)

GAME 4 - VS Alex's Grey Knights

I thought this one was going to be close, but the Dice/Card Gods had other ideas. Nothing went right. My Chimera immobilized itself when it was about to claim 4 points, the Executioner blew itself up on it's first shot and only 3 of the cards I drew could actually be claimed once the Chimeras had gone. Invisible Grey Knights jumping out of a Land Raider don't help things much either.

Final Positions were:

1st - Alex (Grey Knights)
2nd - Adam (Power Armour)
3rd - Myself (Skitarii/Guard)
Joint 4th - Nick (Orks), Glen (Blood Angels)
6th - Kyle (Chaos Marines)

Like I said a couple of things need changing for the next one but over all it was a good day. Look forward to the next one.

Ready for War

Tomorrow my local GW is having a small tournament. 1000 points using tactical objectives with a total of 6 players. I figured this would be a good time to test out the Skitarii against a variety of opponents so they're my main force, backed up by the might of the Imperial Guard (or at least stealing their transports and using them as a meat shield).

Skitarii Primary Detachment (whatever the Skitarii special detachment will be called)

10 Vanguard - 215
- 2x Plasma Caliver
- Enhanced Data Tether
- Power Sword
- Phospher Pistol
- Conversion Field
- Pater Radium

5 Rangers - 120
- 2x Transuranic Arquebus
- Refractor Field

5 Rangers - 135
- 2x Arc Rifle
- Enhanced Data Tether
- Arc Pistol
- Arc Maul
- Refractor Field

Astra Militarum Allied Detachment

Company Command Squad - 125
- Chimera
   - Hull Heavy Flamer

Techpriest Enginseer - 40
Techpriest Enginseer - 40

Veteran Squad - 125
- Chimera
   - Hull Heavy Flamer

Leman Russ Executioner - 185
- Plasma Cannon Sponsons
- Lascannon

Those who are observant will notice I'm currently 5 points down. This is for when I turn up and find out if we're doing mysterious objectives or not. If we are I'll take the Divinator relic which lets me re-roll the result of mysterious objectives, if not a Techpriest gets a Melta Bomb.

The Archmagos is just an Enginseer for this, but I figured that people will see the big scary guy and try to kill him even though it's just a 40 point Enginseer. If asked by the Manager I will take away the Abyant and I wont lie when people ask what he is but I know some people going will aim straight for him.

The Cultists are my Tech Plebs in 30k so they'll be my Pleb Guard in 40k. They're there to buy my Skitarii some transports and get them access to the Executioner for some heavy fire power. This then leaves them to be meat shields/objective holders.

I'll try and get some pictures up as we go along but with the timed games/us getting carried away it might be difficult.

Black Dragon of the Apocalypse

Sunday we have a roughly 7000 points of Chaos Traitors (IA 13)/Daemonkin/Dark Angels (fallen) VS 7000 points of Skitarii/Imperial Guard/Blood Angels over at Black Dragon Miniatures in Hinckley on a really nice 6'x12' board. Besides from a couple of people showing up late and expecting to join in (I mean seriously, store opens at 10 closes at 4 and game starts at 10:30. What on earth makes you think you can turn up at 3:20 and join in??) it was a good game. The Skitarii performed well despite their low numbers and incomplete rules. They almost took out a Blood Thirster and a Lord of Skulls. The Artillery and Cadians wreaked havoc upon Mutant Rabble and Fallen Angels alike and the valiant Blood Angels sowed destruction in the traitors deployment zone. It was a glorious battle. Stuff died, stuff survived, odds were defied and ... something else ending in ied just to make it rhyme. The Imperium unfortunately lost but should another turn have happened who knows what might have happened. Both the Lord of Skulls and Bloodthirster were almost gone as were the last of the Fallen but equally the Blood Angels weren't doing so well and the Skitarii flank was on the verge of being overrun by Possessed and Cultists even with airborne Tempestus reinforcements on the way.

Skitarii - The Kit and Gameplay Thoughts

To build they are simply awesome. The only issues are that when building the bodies they connect to the sprue where the arms go in and that area is a pain in the arse to clean up so the arms fit together, and where the pipes/cables for the Data Tether and Arc Rifles don't quite line up with the back packs. Other than that it's a brilliant kit and I can't wait to get some more. Also planning on using the spares to convert Techmarines/Techpriests/Inquisitors as you get LOADS left over.

In gameplay terms though I'm not going to run them on their own. I'll be throwing in an Inquisitorial detachment with a few squads of just Servitors with heavy weapons (I know they'll mindlock but they'll be on objectives so who cares). Maybe some Monkeys as well. I'll then buy them Transports and move the Skitarii into them on turn 1. This gives my Skitarii some cover as they move up, some extra firepower and keeps me bound. The Inquisitor in question though will either be my Abeyant Magos but use Krazypants rules (NUKE EVERYONE!!) or an Ordo Malleus with Power Fist (servo arm), Hellrilfe and Power Armour should make a decent proxy Techpriest even if he's not very good at fixing things. Maybe throw one of the Relics in there for added tactical buffs. He can then either go with the Rangers and snipe things or the Vanguard and punch things.

I would like to get some Dragoons for back up. They're quick enough to reach the backfield and strong enough to take on lighter tanks. Then I'll get some Dunecrawlers for heavier firepower as they look like they'll be the equivalent of a Predator or Leman Russ. The assassins will probably go in somewhere as they seem like fun units but whether I get 2 units or 1 I'm not sure about.