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Dakota Minor Defence Corps (PDF)
By Mike Zulu
Introduction Like many established Imperium worlds, Dakota Minor has a planetary defence force simply known the Dakota Minor Defence Corps (or DMDC). Most of its number are conscripted from the local population; a small number of citizens willingly join to escape the tedium of farm life that is prevalent on Dakota Minor. The DMDC is organised in a manner similar to Astra Militarum regiments, albeit more limited in their makeup. For the most part, it consists of dozens of infantry battalions- 0 comments
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AdMech Patrol #2 - Progress report
By Bouargh
Blog entries pass and sometimes look like very similar to some previous ones. It is one of the issues when dealing with army building on base of multiples buy outs of the same Patrol Box... Yet we might eventually expect some variation if the models are fitted in different fashion, ain´t we? The Onagre DuneCrawler as already been spoiled in the FOrums, but it has been the major progress of the past week so I will "proudly" republish it there. It is also an unhonorable wa- 1 comment
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Guardians "Done"
16 Guardians done for my pirate force. I might touch up some spots, but no hurry.
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Understanding [Most of] the B&C Site Features
This blog post started life as an effort to better educate members on the benefits of Pages/Articles after some posts, especially the one by @INKS here. The information herein goes beyond Pages/Articles, however, so I decided to locate it within my blog and then link to it in the aforementioned discussion, and maybe also in the Amicus Aedes forum. Realistically, this is just a precursor to something that should be either an article or a series of articles. It is being presented in this abbreviated format, however, in the interest of time (i.e., getting the information out there now) as we lean into making the Pages/Articles feature public.
A key issue is understanding the various features that the site offers. These include:
- Blog
- Club
- Discussion
- Download
- Event (i.e., Calendar) - I'm not going to discuss this feature much herein)
- Gallery
- Pages (hereafter referred to as Article)
The features that are well understood are discussion, download, and gallery. These features are mutually supporting and distinct from each other.
Conversely, the features that are not well understood (and woefully underutilized) are blog, club, and articles. As you will see below, there is a lot of overlap, but each serves a distinct purpose.
DiscussionThe core feature of the site, and that for which the site was created, was discussion. As the name implies, discussion is about various members providing their viewpoints/responses to various topics, engaging in a discussion with each other. The methods for formatting discussion posts transfer over to the other features. Discussion also supports the other features via the ability to post comments, notably in the blogs, galleries, and downloads. When members submit new downloads or articles, discussions are created to announce those additions and provide visibility for other members.
Since the other features came later, discussion has been used to emulate/bastardize those other features. For example, members often use discussions to present their blogs instead of using the actual blog function. Similarly, many articles are presented as discussions rather than via the actual article function. These emulations/bastardizations are functional and familiar, but they are sub-optimal, underutilizing the site's capabilities (for reasons that will be demonstrated later). That said, these emulations/bastardizations are effective (so we're not going to stop anyone from using them), though they are less effective than the actual features.
One aspect of discussions that many members don't notice is the archiving process. In the process, the site software automatically archives a discussion topic after a period of time. Once this happens, members can neither edit posts nor submit additional replies to that topic, effectively locking them.
GalleryThe use of the gallery feature allows members to host images online so that those images can be used in the other site features, such as displaying an image of a painted miniature or a header image for a club/blog. Members have other options for hosting images online, but the B&C galleries are convenient and free. Since the hobby is so visually intense, the ability to display images is essential to effective discussion.
DownloadIf you look at the top of the page, you'll see the site's mission statement. A key element of that is the final sentence - the sharing of hobby-related content [to help others enjoy the hobby]. While images (see gallery above) are an obvious element of that, there are many non-image forms of content that members can share with each other to fulfill this portion of our mission statement. Over the years we have seen myriad types of files shared via the downloads, including roster templates, homegrown rules, decals, missions, etc. In many cases, these content types can be shared via discussion, but the ability to download files provides much better control and enables more efficient printing of these files. An announcement is created in the discussion forums any time a file is submitted to our downloads, and members are able to comment in that discussion or directly to the file page to provide feedback to the content creator/submitter.
BlogA blog bears a very strong resemblance to a discussion forum, but where the structure and scope of the discussion forums are controlled by the B&C admins, each member has control over their own blog. The real value of a blog is that a member can have a central location for all of their various projects. Discussions might fall off the front page, so if a member decides to update a project, they may have to perform some level of searching to find an existing project discussion (and there are various ways of performing such a search). If a member has a blog, however, they simply have to open their blog to narrow their search down, making it much easier to find the project they're looking for (and for others to review all of a member's projects without laborious searching).
One of the great things about the blog feature is that it provides members with a convenient and free way to present their own blog, saving them from having to host/download some other blog software and learn how to use that software.
ClubThe club feature is easily the best of the new features (since the site update a few years ago). Clubs fulfill a variety of purposes, limited only by the community requirement that a club be relevant to the Warhammer 40,000 hobby and members' imaginations (with the caveat that we won't approve of clubs that effectively duplicate public discussion forums - for example, we don't need a club for fans of the Dark Angels since we already have a discussion forum for that purpose). Clubs may be created to focus on products (e.g. 40K Action Figure Afficianados for fans of the JoyToy and McFarlane WH40K action figures), allow for coordination within specific geographic areas (e.g., the Europe club for those WH40K issues that are specific to the members of our community that reside upon that continent), allow for coordination within WH40K game clubs or stores (e.g., Metal Head Armory in Phoenix, Arizona, USA), development of homegrown rules (e.g., The Chronicles of Saint Katherine's Aegis), etc.
One particularly great capability that clubs provide is the ability for members to work on group projects without the need for B&C administrator support. In the past, we had the Special Projects forum in which members could create discussions to coordinate efforts in a special project (typically working towards the creation of some set of homegrown rules). Particularly complex projects often required the creation of dedicated sub-forums, allowing participants to have multiple discussions for better organization and partitioning of their project; and the creation of such sub-forums required administrator approval and a degree of work on the part of the approving administrator. With clubs, however, members can simply create a club dedicated toward their project. The really great part, though, is that the club owner/creator can include various features in the club, including one or more discussion forums, files (i.e., downloads), galleries, and events. This enables participants to upload project-specific files and images within the club, and to coordinate efforts on their own calendar. The club owner/creator can decide upon the features that will be available in the club, and these features can be updated later. The only hurdle with the clubs is that clubs must be approved by administrators, but with no other effort on their part, speeding things up considerably. In addition, club owners/creators can be given permissions similar to those of moderators within their clubs, allowing them to control content more easily without the need for administrator/moderator intervention (though they won't have disciplinary permissions). Overall, clubs provide members with a great deal of freedom, better supporting member-created content with much less need for moderators/administrators.
ArticleThe (soon-to-be) newest feature is the pages (article) feature, which resurrects the functionality that we used to have in the Librarium (way back in the day). The key distinction between articles and discussions is that articles are a way for an author (or authors) to present their content to others, much the way articles are published in magazines and journals, whereas a discussion is much more open and anyone can participate. If a member has conducted a lot of research on a subject and wants to present their conclusions to other members, an article is an excellent format. If a member wants to debate issues or if they have questions for which they desire answers/feedback, however, a discussion would be a better format. As with downloads, the submission of an article creates a discussion that serves as both an announcement (providing visibility to other members) as well as a medium for others to provide their feedback on the article (and which the article author may consider for possible updates to the article).
Articles can have different origins. For example, a discussion topic may prompt a member to compose an article, whether some discussion of lore, the presentation of their homegrown Chapter of Space Marines, etc. Alternately, a member may complete a project that they presented in their blog, then they might collect the blog (or highlights thereof) into an article. Or a group may develop some project, presenting the finished product as an article.
It is also very important to identify the relationship between downloads and articles. Each of these features enables members to present the same (or similar) information via different mediums. The articles [pages] function allows for online/digital presentation of content (that is formatted based on the user's device), whereas downloads allow for that same information to be presented in a format that can be printed (in a format defined by the author). Many of you may be familiar with a variety of online libraries such as those that are available at learning institutions; those online libraries allow members to view an article online and often to download that article (typically in .pdf format). Our software doesn't allow for online presentation of a .pdf, unfortunately, but the online format (via the articles feature) provides better accessibility that is tailored to the user's device. There is no automatic linkage between the two features, unfortunately, nor is there (and there will not be) any mandated requirement from the site for members to submit content in both formats. In my ideal world, however, members will take the time to develop content in both formats to better support the various needs of other community members. At this point, all we can do is provide incentives to those outcomes via achievements/badges (i.e., the system tracks your content submissions and awards badges at different thresholds).
The most important thing to realize is that all of these features exist within an ecosystem. Each has a specific function and works best for different types of outcomes, though there are many commonalities. Yes, the discussion feature can be used to emulate blogs and articles, but blogs and articles each do their own thing better than discussions. Many of these features support or are supported by various other features.
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Intermission 2 (WIPs)
Nothing very fancy from me today, just a potato cam images of some WIPS.
Two Khymaran Veterans. I might even finish them at some point. These are deliberately rough as a badger's chuff, and I'm a little fed up with myself, since despite practice, I just couldn't get the battenberg shoulder scheme down. In the end I settled for a mixed veg melange of red and yellow as their pauldrons would be if they were in normal livery.
The pic robs the guy on the right of his MK VII-esque armour, as I've trimmed his poleyns and his gorget. Worked a treat and very easy to do. Unfortunately this is the only phone/camera I have, ad this is the best pic of a dozen.
The weathering powder filled up some of the bolter holes in the legs, but at this point IDGAD, because they look great standing next tot he Deadnought (no not a spelling mistake) that can be found a couple of entries back. I both did and didn't enjoy doing them. Frustration is the worst type of motivation killer.
Speaking of which, that's it for today. Happy blasting.
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I’ve Dropped the Ball!
Man did I fail hard and immediately at posting once a month! Good news and bad news. Good news, I’ve kept intermittently painting through the first year of grad school. Bad news, I didn’t get anything photographed until just a few weeks back! Here’s a collection of some completed models and some WIPs from the last year.
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anyone know what the cheapest kill team to play is?
I'm trying to to start playing
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Some Traitor Dice Trays
Made some more dice trays for some of the Traitor groups.
Angron, Magnus, Kurze, and Perturabowhat do you all think? I think they came out well!
Love it? Get one here! https://www.etsy.com/shop/TomcatLaserCreations?ref=dashboard-header
Thanks!
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A review of different Sci-Fi miniatures
It has been a while since I posted something on my blog and since I have been thinking about different miniature lines and their advantages and disadvantages I decided to do a short review comparing miniatures from 3 different companies: GW, North Star and Wargames Atlantic.
The cover I chose for this blog entry is a conversion made of bits from different companies, including the 3 companies I will evaluate in this review.
As a initial warning, this review is based on my personal preferences and should be seen as a perfectly impartial review, but I will try to describe the advantages and disadvantages as straightforward as I can.Lets start with GW
GW has a lot of experience and you can notice that easily with their model boxes, including the painted examples and the instructions that are often detailed enough to help with assembly.
Still the models have varied greatly throughout the years and there is a clear difference from older models to newer ones and in my opinion not everything is good.
Many modern models have loadouts that are only meant to be used with specific bodies/heads/other parts which wasn't the case for the older ones and this is particularly noticeable on the models with the more dynamic poses, where it can be painful to try and use slightly different loadouts or heads to give a different look (examples from my experience would include the escher models, some of the gsc infantry, but obviously there are more examples).
Advantages:
- Experienced miniature designers
- Useful assembly instructions (although not always perfect)
- Painted examples (often with indication of the paints used)
- Clear description of contents (in most cases)
- Good sprue photos (most often than not)
- Lots of extra parts for customization (although often not usable for all models)
Disadvantages:
- Modern models tend to be less customizable without extra work (poses, places where parts fit and so on can be tricky to work around)
- Heavy cost
- Often difficult to find through EU retailers as many items are exclusives or have limited availability
- Push fit models often have areas which lack detail despite being cut in lots of different fragile parts (seen in some of the old 5 cultists sprue and some of BSF renegade guard)
North Star Stargrave
The models done for the Stargrave game are mostly recent and thus the line is still relatively small, but the kits are overall well designed and the parts put on the sprue in a decent manner.
Some numbers on the arms are not always easy to see from some minor mould issues, but overall the quality of the sprues is great and the models are easy to assemble and can be customized in several different ways.
Since they were developed for small games the models are less standardized than something like IG in 40k but they are great for representing ship crews, militias, mercenaries and renegade forces that don't follow a strict uniform policy.
Sculpts for decorative parts are usually simpler compared to GW but extremely pleasing to the eyes and easy enough to paint.
The heads are often sculpted as different people and not just clones with different expressions/hair/beards, although you might see repeated bare heads across different kits in the same line.
Advantages:
- Painted examples
- Clear description of contents (in most cases)
- Good sprue photos (not always but on most occasions)
- Lots of extra parts for customization
- Unique sculpts for the heads that avoid repetition
- Decent sprue layouts
- Good fitting of parts
- Relatively cheap
Disadvantages:
- Minor issues with areas of the sprue that are not well detailed (the numbers placed on the area of the arms that fits the body are not always visible)
- Lack of experience in terms of model design (not an issue with Stargrave in particular but some of the first Frostgrave kits were a bit less customizable and designed in a simpler way)
- Not as common as GW kits (still relatively easy to find through retailers but not everywhere)
- No assembly instructions (although the models are easy enough to assemble so not a major issue)
- Not standard in terms of equipment so not suited for things like IG regiments
Wargames Atlantic (mostly Death Fields)
Wargames Atlantic has the Death Fields line as a sort of IG proxies line, with many kits being roughly compatible with IG infantry in terms of weapons and gear, although there is a clear effort to be slightly different in terms of loadouts to avoid issues with GW.
There is a clear lack of experience in terms of kit development and while they are still relatively high quality, some part fitting is difficult (arms for example might not fit exactly right for some pairs) and some sprue layouts are not necessarily the best, with many kits having areas of simplified details to get around their inexperience.
There are no instructions and in some cases pairs of arms are found through experimentation or by checking reviews of the models.
Sprue pictures are usually available, but most seem to be taken with potato quality smartphones.
Lots of repeated sculpts, especially in the heads, for example with gas mask heads it is often the case that all of them are the exact same sculpt, no small details changed nor anything similar in order to add lots of customization.
Advantages:
- Painted examples
- Lots of extra parts for customization
- Relatively cheap
- Standard equipment
Disadvantages:
- Bad fitting of some parts
- Lack of experience in terms of model design (lots of issues come from the fact that the designers are good at making designs, but not good at making sure those look good in a sprue)
- Not as common as GW kits (still relatively easy to find through retailers but not everywhere)
- No assembly instructions (sometimes this can be an issue for some kits)
- Repeated sculpts for the heads that cause lots of repetition
- Bad sprue photos (not always but on most occasions)
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[Ref. Captain Malphas of the 3rd Company, Angels Apocryphal, Patron of Klan Dunmael, Lords of Blackholme]
By the third moon of the Boethean Strand, and the dark temples therein, you will burn this day.
~To Crulliorre Vehnuym, Arch-Heirophant of the Unmade, during The Rivening- Read more...
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Tackling my T’au - Stormsurge Part 6
Basically a photo gallery of the finished model.
The armour panels had a final edge highlight of Skarsnik Green, while the gold areas were highlighted first with liberator gold and then mithril silver (very old Citadel pot). Red areas are highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet and then Fire Dragon Bright.In case anyone is interested, the smoke coming from the Leman Russ is an old trick of mine, harking back to my teens when my mum used to make teddy bears. The smoke is actually teddy bear stuffing! I still have a bunch of this stuff in my hobby box and it traditionally gets used during games to mark where a tank has been wrecked but not exploded.
The stuffing works well as smoke because it is a bit more coarse than cotton wool so it holds its shape better. I fixed it in place with PVA glue and brushed a bit of Abbadon Black onto it with a large brush to create some of the oily smoke effect.
Hope you like it!
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Snakes of Ithaka's return to the Phratry
The Iron Snakes
The Iron SnakesFear not the snake for his guile, nor his silence.
Fear him for his speed at striking,
The clenching strength of his coils,
The armour of his scales,
And the sharpness of his bite.
Fear the snake, oh enemies of man,
For his coils encircle us
And his bright eyes, unblinking,
Watch over us forever.
From The Lays of Proud Ithaka.
Time to start anew. It has been almost a year since I posted anything here., my small Ultramarines project that I started a previous thread for fizzled due to real life issues and hobby burn out, so I decided to take some time away and got stuck into a solo Gloomhaven campaign instead.
Over Christmas while I was off work I sat down and re-read brothers of the snake quickly followed by the 2 Urdesh novels and found the itch to dig my Iron Snakes back out.
Usually with hobby projects I rush into them with lots of enthusiasm but without too much thought into how to put my idea's into reality and this leads to a scattergun approach which usually leads to me to spending plenty of characters converted and painted but nothing much else, so this time I have sat down and made a plan of sorts. With the Urdesh novels fresh in my mind I plan to make the squads/characters from that novel first:
- Damocles Squad - using the sternguard kit as a base
- Kalliopi Squad - using the jump pack assault intercessors as a base
- Erasmos Squad - using the assault intercessor kit as a base
- Platonos Squad - using the intercessor kit as a base
- Captain Priad - using dark angels master lazarus as a base.
- Pyrakmon - techmarine kit
- Hamiskora - librarian kit
I have sat down and painted a couple of test models which I am happy with these use slightly different colours to my previous models the biggest being the golds and have also pick up some awesome new decals from Aquila Relics to use for this project .
Below is the test model that I painted up using the old company champion mini that I have laying around.
I have had a rummage through the pile of shame and collected a few bits together and have started kit bashing a 5 man squad that I'll get painted up before I set to work on the above models.
Thanks for looking, until next time.
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Painting the Rest of Leviathan...
Well, it's been a while since I blogged last...too long in fact. I was only supposed to have a short break while I finished my Bladeguard and Assault Intercessors (and Bladeguard Ancient, and Captain...). They didn't end up being done till late November time as other things piled up.
Here's how they turned out:
This led to me finally starting the Marine half of the Leviathan box (I think I said before I wanted it done before New Year...That didn't happen).
I started with my favourite Marine sculpts, the Terminators. While I may of saved the best till last with the tyranids, I wasn't following that trend with these. So seven models hit the table (Captain, Librarian, Terminator Squad):
and at some point I added the old Terminator Marneus Calgar finecast (I didn't know this when I bought it) model to this.
They got a coat of blue, and silver aaannnddd that was it for a month or so.
Flash forward to January (same time I revived my thread in the wip area) when I picked up the paintbrush again.
I tried something new for these which I had only done in trial cases before, and that was building up to white (and going further for the chest aquillas, up to gold). I worked through dark grey to light grey to white. With the helmets, I worked in as layers, leaving grey showing as shadows. It was a time consuming process but I liked the results.
The capes on the captain and Calgar I'm particularly proud of, more so than my primaris calgar.
I was grateful that the captain's base gave me an opportunity to do another tyranid...even if it was a dead one.
I also attempted my first free handing here, and clearly I need more practice.
The rest of the models turned out quite well, I also held back a little on the blue highlights, not sure if it was effective or not.
It was about this time I realised that Calgar's little shield wing was glued on by the previous owner the wrong way.
I didn't push myself on the Librarian as I should of but the GW standard paint scheme didn't appeal to me.
The Terminator Squad though, I'm quite happy with these guys, in fact I'm itching to get the multipart set now, just to have their various weapon options.
So, there was 25 models for the space marines in Leviathan, and I've done 7 models here. By my quick and dirty calculations, I've almost done a third.
This brings us to the next batch for this mini project:
Orto Cassius aside, it's another 7 models (one being the big boi of the Ballistus Dreadnought). Completing these will take me over the half way point. Let's see if I can get them done in under three months this time! People who follow my other thread will have an idea of where I am with these guys...
Till next time,
Keep hobbying!
ZeroWolf
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Warhammer 40k Kill Team QRC summaries
What's the problem?
Have you ever thought that relying too much on rule books and summaries makes it slow and cumbersome when playing Warhammer 40k Kill Team?
Above all when you're starting with a new Kill Team, it's hard to keep track of the different operatives' stats, all their ploys, equipment... And if you're sharing the same book with other people in the same game it makes all the experience really slow. You spend more time turning pages around than actually enjoying the game.
While there's some great aids around for printing data cards, if you have a very diverse squad you will end up with a lot of them, and if you change your weapon choices depending on the game you play, you'll need plenty of those. Furthermore, those are amazing for operatives, but they don't include any specific Kill Team ability or the Glossary with all the different weapon rules you will be using, needing to have specific documents laying around.
What's our solution?
The solution we came in is to create a summarized QRC that will fit in between 4 - 6 pages, so it can be printed or browsed directly as a PDF in a tablet or phone.
They show the Faction Archetypes, all the available options for each operative, as well as their main Stats and any special rule (Flying, Psychic...). They also include the Faction TacOps, as well as the special abilities, psychic powers and both Strategic and Tactical Ploys.
At the end of the documents you can find a whole Glossary with ALL the abilities and Special Rules that appear in the whole summary, so you can rely on those as your go-to reference during your games for that specific Faction.
How do I use them?
They're filed in PDF format and you can either print them and staple them (or any other choice) or browse them directly from your digital devices.
Where can I find them?
You can find the available ones in my page for free (or the prize you'd like to contribute with!)
If you'd like QRCs for some team, drop us a line and we'll work on it!
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Do you remove mould lines?
I've been building my Orks from my new pile of shame and it's going a lot slower than I thought it would. It takes me probably 30 minutes per model just to scrape off all the mould lines!
When you think I've got nearly a hundred models to build (2 x 20 model units of Boyz was a bad place to start) it's going to take me a millennium before I'm ready to get them primed, painted and onto the tabletop.
As frustrating as it is, I think it's a lot better than the alternative. Mould lines left on models really stick out - at least to me - and look... unfinished, even when they're painted. Some of them are really subtle or in places you'd never see unless a model was an inch in front of your face but some of them stick out like a giant neon sign. You know those people that like to watch people popping spots? I'd watch an ASMR video of someone scraping mould lines of Warhammer models.
In fact I'd consider paying for someone to do it all for me so all I had to do was assemble my models like little Lego pieces then move on with my life. I'm glad I didn't bother in picking up a mould line remover tool, there's no way that chunky tip could get into half the nooks and crannies those pecky mould lines show up. Hobby knife all the way, baby!
I'd love to know if you spend the time to remove mould lines on your models or if you're a psychopath and leave them on! Drop a comment below :)
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Welcome back, I honestly didn't think it would take more than 6 months to get back to this, but here we are, and we'll cover my 2022 Commissions, and a little bit of spill over into the early months of 2023.
So, where was I?
Right, Belakor, dragged out for 3 months. Did I learn my lesson and take a break?
No. No I did not.
In fact, I immediatly kicked off the year with two simultaneous commissions, a long slow burn one from my regular client with the Sororitas and Drukhari, and one from a new client for some Custodes.
The Custodes commission included 8 Allarus Custodians, and Trajann Valoris (I still have my own I've yet to paint...). I was matching an existing colour scheme (the client provided a painted model as reference), and these guys turned out to be quite the contradiction for me. I liked the colour scheme and was digging it, and I really, REALLY enjoyed painting Trajann Valoris, but man, did I find the Custodians themselves quite the drag. All that tiny filigree on the shins and weapons meant so much back and forth between the gold and black, but in the end, I think the effort was worth it.
Spoiler
The very same week I set off on the third round of Commission work, expanding the forces of the the Sisters and Drukhari. As it turns out, my client is actually a family group, who are all buying the armies together, and they are adding two new armies to their collection, Necrons AND Slaanesh Daemons, and this commission will add enough models to bring these two new armies up to points to match the Drukhari and Sororitas.
It turns out I'm a glutton for punishment, and you see, I tend to make my job harder for myself. Excluding the rank and file models, personally, I *HATE* seeing the *same* model multiple times throughout an army. So I spend my time time converting the clients models, for no additional cost, because it makes me happy. This is most prevelant in the Battle Squad banner bearers, every single one of them is unique. Initially, the client was very cautious / nervous about letting me do my thing wih their models, and very hesitent with conversions, thankfully now I have erned their trust and have carte blanche to assemble models however I fancy.
The newest Adepta Sororitas expansion included Inquisitor Coteaz, Morvenn Vahl, 3 Pragon Warsuits (with magnetised weapons), 20 Battle Sisters, and a Castigator Battle Tank (also with magnetised weapons).
Spoiler
The Drukhari expansion was a much lower model count, but made up for it with big firepower. It included 1 Succubus and 10 Mandrakes, but the punch came in the form of 2 Forge World Reapers, and a Void Raven Bomber (with magnetised weapons). This Succubus is why the client became more open to conversions. You see this model started out as a Daughter of Khaine model, in fact it was one of the freebie's GW was giving out when the started the free monthly models.
Spoiler
At the start of Q4 of 2021, my health issues once again reared their ungly heads and I was forced to turn down the first of the Slaanesh commissions for the family group. It would of been for 4 Keepers of Secrets and 30 Daemonettes. I really wanted to do them, but just could not function. SO, when it came time for the first expansion, they tasked me with matching the paintworks of another commission painter. Unfortunately, despite a number of attempts at contact, I wasn't able to get a paint list or basic walkthrough of the scheme, and the pictures the client sent through didn't really provide a clear enough idea of how to procede.
When looking at the pictures below, you'll be able to see that the colours of the claws go through a few iterations and repaints until the client settled on the scheme in the top picture. The commission started with Syll'Esske and 10 Daemonettes, but with a late Q3 expansion, they added The Contorted Epitome, 20 Daemonettes, and 6 Fiends.
The late addition of the 20 Daemonettes came with a timer, they were needed BEFORE Xmas, which was complicated by a GW FAQ. Daemonette squad sizes changed, and of the 20 painted, based and varnished Daemonettes, 9 of them now had to become Champions, Musicians, and Icon Bearers.
Thankfully the clients understood that this was a significant request, whilst still needing to maintain the deadline, and offered a more than acceptable "inconvienience fee". Thankfully the Contorted Epitome and Fiends weren't included in the timer, and I finshed those in early January.
Spoiler
The Necrons were the largest of the commissions in 2022, and consisted of The Void Dragon, The Nightbringer, The Deceiver, Imotekh the Stormlord, a Royal Warden, a Plasmancer, 5 Lych Guard, 10 Immortals, 20 Warriors and 6 Scarab Swarms all in the Sautekh Dynasty.
Spoiler
BUT, those models aren't Sautekh, are they?
Nope, no they're not.
Several months in to the work, (I'd been switching and changing between the factions to prevent burnout), the client dropped a bomb. They're dropping Imotekh and replacing him with The Silet King, an Overlord, 2 more Plasmancers, and 5 additional Lych Guard AND changing the entire Necron commission to the Szarekhan Dynasty....the day before I was ready to show off the completed models.
This ended up taking the rest of the year and them some to complete the repaints and additional models. Again, I was fairly compensated for the repaint AND Imotekh was mine to keep.
Spoiler
The final piece of this year long, four faction commission was a sizable chunk of terrain. 8 Ruined Sector Mechanicus Ruins, 4 Ruined Walls, 4 barricades, 4 pipe sections, 1 Ferratonic Furnace, 2 Plasma Generators, 3 Munitorum Crates, 2 tank traps, 2 trap doors, 5 3D printed crators.
Sometime about October, I completed another Hero Forge commission for 3 D&D heroes, this was my first referral client, who had seen the first Hero Forge model I'd painted way back in 2020.
and Finally, the last commission I worked on in 2022 was a triplicate of Kill Teams for fellow B&C member, INKS. There were teams for the Scythes of the Emperor, Blood Angels, Iron Warriors, and a pair of characters, Trajann Valoris (again, and no, I still haven't painted my own...), and a Sanguinary Priest (magnetised pack and weapons).
So, I've tallied up all the models I completed (I'm counting the crew/pilots etc as seperate models, as they were all painted seperately prior to assembly), and I completed 189 models in 2022. This is about ~50 or so more models than my first year.
What lessons did I learn throughout the year?
The commission WILL take longer that I think it will, because life happens, work happens, family happens. Burnout is a thing. Sometimes I just *DON'T WANNA DO IT" happens, and I'll go outside, sit down to paint, pick up the model and thhen just not.
One of the things I introduced to facilitate keeping on track was "Marvel Mondays" I began painting my Marvel United figures and posting them on Insta every Monday, I implemented Sunday as "my" day. I never work Sundays (too expensive to schedule), and on Sundays I only do personal hobby and not commission work. This little bit of structure has helped, but it was really only mid 2023 that I worked this one out.
So next time, and hopefully in less than 6 months, we'll look at 2023's commissions, and any lessons I learned along the way.
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Inspiration for the Order
Inspiration for the Order
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The Order of the Broken Arrow (hereafter known as the Broken Arrow) is the core concept and organizing principle behind my M41 Dark Angels collection. It is entirely a homebrew concept, though I should emphasize that it is founded upon established Dark Angels lore to date as I understand it. It is very likely that as the return of The Lion and expansion of the Dark Angels Primaris marines are explored in greater detail by the Black Library and future codexes, much of what I write and do here won’t line up. The upcoming Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge will also be pertinent to my project, as the core of the Broken Arrow resides in the 5th Company and relies on Lazarus’s status as the “Keeper of the Unseen Ritual” as a major plot point. Still, one can only work with the materials to hand, to date. Besides, a little bit of mismatching, obfuscation, and fuzziness works for a Dark Angels project!
The inspiration for the Broken Arrow springs primarily from The Horus Heresy Book Nine: Crusade and Lion el’Jonson: Lord of the First, both set in M30. At the risk of oversimplifying the incredible lore of Crusade, the Dark Angels of M30 made use of “orders” that existed outside of established Legion organization. These orders were formed of individuals who possessed the knowledge and lore necessary to combat a particular threat. Members of an order carried out their assigned duties in whatever combat or command role they occupied within the Legion until they were needed, at which point the order gathered together to address the situation. Allegiance to an order was not openly declared, but members generally wore identifiers proclaiming their membership to those initiated in the order’s mysteries and arcana. These identifiers could be symbols, trinkets, or even the application of colors in a specific pattern on an armor plate or piece of clothing. The end result of the order system was an invisible infrastructure dispersed throughout the Legion equipped to deal with threats or enemies with targeted expertise, affording the First unparalleled tactically flexibility.
David Guymer’s Lord of the First explores what this order system looked like in practice. I won’t spoil anything here, but it is a good read for those looking to understand how the Dark Angels legion works. Though I should note that despite it being part of the Primarch series, The Lion ends up getting very little screen time.
Before moving on to M41, another important source of inspiration to explore is the artwork presented in Crusade. The sheer variety of colors and panoply, each accompanied with its own secret and deeper meaning, captured my imagination. The Star Burners, a specialist squad of Hellbasters serving in the 5th Company, owed their unique markings to pictures in Crusade.
So all of this is fine and good, but at the end of the day, all of these inspirations are specific to the Dark Angels Legion, which itself was a product of a discrete time, place, and context. Simply importing everything directly into an M41 setting unaltered, in my personal opinion, undoes and ignores the lore of ten thousand plus years. The Dark Angels were profoundly changed after the breaking of Caliban, the trauma of losing their genefather (temporarily, I should say), and the suffocating, omnipresent weight of guilt and shame that accompanied the spread of the Fallen and codification of The Hunt. It is only natural following these revelations that the Unforgiven adapt to a new reality, one far divorced from that in M30. After all, the Dark Angels only got to spend roughly 168 years with The Lion from his discovery in 846.M30 to the sundering of Caliban in 15.M31. The Legion itself had only been operating as a fighting force for roughly 314 years (Palace Coup in 700.M30 to 15.M31). In short, what I am trying to get at is that the Dark Angels spent a comparatively short amount of time as the Angels of Death and First Legion and that though these ancient years are the foundation of the modern Unforgiven, it is not believable that their exact heraldry, organization, and customs would survive intact to M41.
The question then became, how do I incorporate these elements into a modern Dark Angel army? The Lion had not yet returned when I started this collection, so I could not rely on the whole “the Primarch returned and changed everything, so that is that.” It was the 9th Edition Codex Supplement: Dark Angels that answered my question. It noted that 5th Company Master Lazarus was also the Keeper of the Unseen Ritual. This made him responsible for collating the ancient knowledge of Caliban’s ancient orders, and noted that those who possessed such knowledge of the orders were generally Inner Circle [1]. Suddenly it made sense how I could bring the M30 elements I enjoyed into my collection.
Lazarus, through diligent study, had unlocked some of the ancient mysteries, lores, heraldry, order, divisions, and customs of the First Legion. Armed with this knowledge, he used his own 5th Company as a way to apply what he learned. However, his understanding of the ancient past is incomplete. Data stacks may indicate that applying bone color to certain pieces of armor was an honor, but not elaborate on what exactly that honor signified. The Inner Circle also made sure to scrutinize and drip feed Lazarus only that information which they wanted him to know, though of course some things slipped through the cracks. In the end, I had a premise that allowed me to continue collecting and fielding what we understand as modern Dark Angels while also incorporating elements of the past, distorted as it were by an incomplete understanding and deliberate redaction.
With the framework in place, the next steps were to develop the lore for an order within the 5th Company, and develop unique iconography and heraldry for other special units. This of course will be the subject of another rambling blog post.
Thanks again for reading, and of course let me know what you think below!
- Company Master Holden
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[1] Located on page eight of the supplement. As someone who purchased the Dark Vengeance box set when it was brand new, I was disappointed to see that Balthazar had been killed off in such a flippant manner. That said, the Psychic Awakening series and recent Codexes have made Lazarus a more interesting character than he was before. I am hoping Emnity's Edge will continue the character development.
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Sagittarum complete
Now I've figured out the paint scheme, the process is nice and easy to get through and get good results.
Squad Celestus and their Gryph-Mastiff:
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Armiger Talon Intermission
Lil big knights!
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As a bit of an intermission, our group is doing a throwback to our classic apocalypse games with a 30k, 30k game and after a weekend with a horde adjacent Anathema army i really wanted to run something Elite, and aint nothing more elite than Knights with Custodes allies! Both forces having barely seen table time all together, essentially being allies and addons to myriad other forces over the years (Especially the Red King!). It was also a great excuse to pick up a couple of War dogs and marginally de-Chaos them as my faction of House Gevauden is technically a traitor force but the sides needed me to play loyalist, just ignore some of the heraldry ;)
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I also tried a few new techniques on these, fully switching basing scheme and trying a semi metallic metals scheme on the skeleton and trim from Eons of Battle (Check him out on Youtube!)
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This is the Talon leader, marked by the Eye of Horus and lack of chains, but still only allowed a Crescent moon rather than full house colours. Oh and a battered Eagle head :D
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The Leader also has a Claw instead of a chain cleaver because i presumably used it somewhere else, i was working with two Wardogs and a Helevrin but had spares from previous projects that provided the melta guns and one melta lance.
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On to the next doggo, the basing went a bit wrong on these when you look, i mixed some foamboard in under the basing foil and no amount of filler or glue would make it sit right! Its fine at eye level though. I hope :P
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Armiger pilots not of noble lineage are chained into their thrones, they arent trusted not to eject too early, this way the hull has to take a few good hits to make that possible...
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The aged metal effect from Eons of battle really works for knight skeletons, i hate spraying them silver and working down, this comes up from zenithal black/grey with only a sprinkle of silver/gold drybrush, i thing i did too much honestly but im quite happy with how irregular it is :D
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Their arms are technically poseable a little, if a bit stiff, but saves me a job trying to glue them mid painting!
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There is logic to all the seemingly random pauldron art, i had a depository of all my AT scale knights designs unfortunately lost in a Harddrive dying (always backup kids!) Some nice battle damage on this angle too!
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So three more Armigers for House Gevauden, hopefully the new model curse is merciful...
Im sure ive spotted a few errors of course looking at the shots, always more work lol Thanks for bearing with me! - 14
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Leviathan Librarian into...
So, I know I said my next blog post would be looking at my plans for my Canis Rex counts-as…
…but, I was looking at the sprue for the Terminator Librarian and trying to think how I was going to modify it to make it my own (I just don't like leaving stuff without any kind of conversion!) Anyway, sudden inspiration struck! This model:
…is an old favourite of mine. It's a bit dated in terms of scale and proportions, but the character of it is just so cool. So, I figured what if I converted the Leviathan mini into a Terminator Inquisitor? Ruleswise, it's still a TDA Marine Librarian, but in terms of fluff and build it gives me a bit more freedom.
A few hours of bitz rummaging and greenstuffing later and voila:
Obviously, it's not intended to be a straight up copy of the original. Rather, it's just meant to reference some of the original's lovely features; the bionic leg, the null rod, etc. The head is taken from Sir Hektur (which I won't use on my Knight pilot) as it looked about right to me with the tash/goatee? I'm especially happy with the chest icon - I managed to drill out the skull, and the centre of one of the Grey Knight backpack toppers was trimmed down and slotted right into the gap!
Painting wise, I'm not sure about scheme yet… but maybe the light blue chosen by whoever painted the version of the original mini above might make for a nice contrast with my Celebrants?
Anyway, thanks for reading! C+C always welcome. Next time I'll look at the Knight, I promise!
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Death and decay…
… the beginning of the end
Death is a doorway to a new life… death is inevitable…- Read more...
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Saracen's Tau vs Tyriks' Necrons (1000 pts)
I got in another game this weekend with Tyriks and remembered to take pictures this time. We decided to play 1000 points again because we're still getting back into 40k since a long pause during 9th and a shorter break between the start of 10th and now due to life being chaotic. The lists are in the comments below this Batrep Post to keep the clutter down.
Tyriks graciously set up the table for us after drawing a random deployment card, which was Crucible Of Battle or diagonal deployment zones on the short sides of the board edges.
1. Initial Board State
For the mission and rules, we drew Take And Hold with Minefields modifying the overall mission. Minefields causes 6's on advance roles to cause the unit damage and the mission overall is just attempting to keep objectives under your control, capping at 15 points per turn for 3 held. For our secondarys, the Necrons opted for Bring it Down and Engage on All Fronts and the Tau selected Storm Hostile Objective and Engage on All Fronts.
2. Mission rules
Deployment
We both had a generous amount of cover to deploy into and I elected to place my pathfinders in my large center ruin while the rest of my army, which could mostly not benefit from cover anyway, deployed evenly to either side of the main ruin. My rail rifle Broadsides and one squad of Breachers in their devilfish deployed to the left side of the ruin, lining up for a supported drive towards the center objective with an eye at having the rail rifles neutralize the heavy destroyers. On the right side, my tetras posted up on my objective with my high yield missile broadsides and the other unit of Breachers in their Devilfish. Finally, I placed my stealth team on the left no-man's-land objective behind the large rock so they could spot into the other objective zones.
3. Tau Deployment
My opponent placed his warriors on the first floor of his central ruin and his heavy destroyers on the second level, overlooking the battlefield. The ophidians hid behind the small ruin opposite of my tetras eyeing the other mid-field objective behind the rock closer to his deployment zone. His Canoptek Stalker and Hexmark Destroyer lurked in deep Strike waiting to jump into action where they could do the most damage.
4. Necron Deployment
Turn 1
Tyrik's won first turn and decided that discretion was the better part of valor and mostly remained for the first turn of movement after seeing a disappointing advance roll for his warriors, commenting that in prior games rash early movement had gotten him into trouble. Instead, he shuffled his warriors back to hold his home objective and instructed his Heavy Destroyers to take out the pathfinders from their second story overwatch position. A withering barrage of enmitic exterminator fire quickly yielded exactly 10 unsaved wounds for the poor pathfinders, taking the Tau's primary spotter unit out of action before a single Markerlight had illuminated an enemy of the Greater Good. Ending his turn, the Necrons scored 0 secondary points but dealt a major blow to the Tau's spotting network.
In response, Tau shuffled the Tetras over to get a fix on the Heavy Destroyer's with their High Intensity Markerlights and instructed the rail rifle Broadsides to remain stationary, anchoring their battlesuits into the ground to get every bit of stability. The stealth suit hopped out to also gain a spotting angle while the nearby Devilfish jetted onto the objective they had left. The missile-equipped broadsides strode forward and barely got one suit into range of the destroyers as well.
5. Tau Turn 1 Movement
Once movement had ceased, the broadside teams opened fire on the Heavy Destroyers and their attached Lord, leading to one wound from the missile barrage and four wounding hits from the heavy rail rifles. Two wounding hits from the heavy rail rifles were absorbed by the Locust Lord, who failed both invulnerable saves but managed to save the unit from potential destruction. The remaining two wounding hits killed off two whole Locust destroyers, leaving a single, minorly damaged survivor amongst the wreckage of his comrades.
6. The lone survivor
Turn 2
The necron warriors with their attached Overlord managed to roll a respectable 3" for their advance roll this round and struck out through the ruin's windows and out onto the center of the battlefield, making a straight line for the middle objective. The living metal of one of the scrapped Heavy Destroyers crept to life and mended the clean, precise rail rifle shot that had put it out of commission only moments before, allowing it and its now-full-health compatriot to jet out of the ruin and down to the objective behind the ruin. The squad of Ophidians slithered to the nearby neutral objective and took it. At the end of all the shuffling movement, the two deep striking units emerged, hopping together on the center objective after failing to find a good backfield area to invade.
7. Necron Movement
The Necron warriors and the newly-arrived Hexmark fired into the stealth suits, managing to down one and put a wound on another despite their powerful obscuring fields. The canoptek stalker fired into the broadsides to its front and then attempted to charge, but only managed to take a wound from overwatch fire before the failed charge roll. The necrons again scored 0 secondary points but scored a single objective: 5-0, Necrons
Seeing the enemy advance into the open, the inexperienced Tau commander decided that they had waited long enough and sent forth all forces for their strikes. Both Devilfish screamed forward and delivered their breachers, sending the Gue'Vesa to confront the Necron warriors and their tau comrades to face down the Ophidians. Both broadside pairs shuffled to get better lines of sight to their chosen quarry. The stealth team jumped back to their original position to mark the Ophidians using the corridor through the the center rocks.
8. Tau Movement (Messed up framing and cut off the bottom of the board :/ )
Starting off the shooting, the Gue'Vesa in the middle of the board fired their full salvo of Pulse Blaster fire, aided by the high intensity markerlights of the Tetras and their Fireblade, and managed to down a little more than half of the block of warriors. The warriors used a strategem to return fire, felling 3 of the human auxiliaries. The Heavy Rail Rifle broadsides threaded a needle through their side of the board and wiped out the heavy destroyers over the heads of their vulnerable human allies. In an error, the Tau breachers fired before the missile broadsides, killing off the two Ophidian Destroyers that their support fire could see. This left their fire going into the Canoptek Stalker, which took no damage from the weak but plentiful missiles. Two objectives and Engage on All fronts were scored: 5-12 Tau
9. Breachers Confront the Ophidian Destroyers
10. Gue'Vesa breachers pouring fire into the Advancing Necron Warriors
Turn 3
Resurrection returned several warriors and one ophidian, leaving both units near full strength ad they advanced forward towards the breachers that had fired into them. The stalker scurried towards the broadside that it had been dueling with since it arrived from deep striking into the center. The Hexmark remained stationary to target the stealth suits.
11. Necron Movement
The Necron warriors fired into the breachers and killed six more breachers with the rapid fire gauss fire, leaving only one of the squad living alongside their attached Fireblade. The Hexmark Destroyer fired into the stealth team and easily felled the remaining two members. The stalker again fired at the missile broadsides but their armor proved fit to handle all the hits, taking no wounds. The other breachers managed to avoid any casualties to fire from the Ophidians and were subsequently charged. In response, they used Emergency Embarkation and jumped back into their transport. The Devilfish was then retargeted for the charge and took 8 wounds of damage from the vicious machines. The stalker charged into the missile broadsides, taking one damage from overwatch, and proceeded to do no damage.
Starting with two objectives and scoring no secondaries again, they gained 10 points: 15-12 Necrons
Feeling the overwhelming onslaught of the Necrons turn the tide in basically a single turn, the Tau began to withdraw as much as they could. The remaining Gue'Vesa piled into their devilfish which jetted down the top board edge towards the enemies deployment zone. The other Devilfish followed suit and fell back over the Ophidians. (I misread the rule at first and disembarked my breachers, but we double checked after the picture was taken and reembarked them.) The missile broadsides fell back in hopes that their counterparts with the rail rifles could swing back around the ruin and fell the T9 stalker for them. Unfortunately, the rail rifle broadsides who had been crack shots up until now failed to wound at all. With only one objective scored and not enough table quarters, the Tau only gained 5 points: 15 - 17 Tau
12. Tau Movement
Turn 4
With a large majority of the Tau force dead and fleeing and with time short (Dang afternoon weddings), the game was conceded by the Tau after running through possibilities for scoring with so few troops left on the board. Necron Victory.
Conclusion
Saracen: I am still learning Tau and I think I made plenty of mistakes this game. It is weird coming from GK and other former armies where 3+ was the standard across the board for shooting and fighting. Tau really need to rely on having spotters available and also need to coordinate to take opponent's down together. I thought a single breacher squad with minimal support would be enough to handle large threats and they really needed to be deployed together rather than on their own. If I would have rushed the center and shot the warriors off the board, Tyriks would have had less of an easy time figuring out how to fight back even though I would have left the Ophidians to move freely. Some lessons were learned and fun was had, though, so I think the game was a success overall.
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The Swarmlord
I haven't had much time for hobby lately, and I spent most of that time building. But I did get some time to work on my Swarmlord (which I may be using as a Hive Tyrant on foot, but the Swarmlord looks cooler so I went for that). Side note - the new Hormagaunts are SO MUCH BETTER than the old ones. I remember spending more time cleaning mold lines than everything else combined when I built them back in 4th/5th. I also have (I think) a handle on how I want to go about the background for my fleet, but I need to work on that more.
So, here's my Swarmlord. The gray I haven't started on (obviously) but the red and bone are looking good. I have tried to use bone in at least 5 armies before now, using a variety of techniques, and never got it to look quite right, so I am very happy to finally be getting smooth, consistent results with it.
My process so far is to do the red first and just be sloppy with it. Its 3:1 Flesh Tearers Red with Contrast Medium, I mixed up a huge pot so I don't have to mix it on every model and get it wrong sometimes. Then I fix the white everywhere I messed up, which is probably the hardest step because it's slow and tedious and doesn't actually make the model look more done, but I'm starting to enjoy it more and more as I get the hang of it. Then the bone parts (mixed up a huge batch of that too, 1:1 Skeleton Horde to medium) and then the gray, which is 2:1 Basilicanum Gray and Medium but painted over with ProAcryl bright neutral gray. I am considering adding some edge highlights, which I am historically not good at, but we will see. Hopefully I can finish the gray here Friday and maybe do the head at the same time.
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Beginnings - Into the Maelstrom
Much as I love the new Primaris models, there's just something about the classic pre-8th Space Marines and the kitbashing of said models that really hits a nostalgia nerve for me. So I wanted a project that didn't feel redundant in the modern game of 40K, but also steers clear of being Heresy. The answer is obviously to step back to 5th/6th Edition and the coolest internecine conflict the Imperium has ever seen, the Badab War!
The aim is to use a bit of modern third-party product in combination with the classic "Firstborn" look to bring the belligerents of the Badab War up to the bigger Astartes scale without relying on Primaris to do it (at least not too much, I'm sure a few of their arms will be sprinkled around!)
I'm not working on a specific chapter to start with, just building a few Marines and seeing where it takes me, using the chapter tactics and character rules from the Forgeworld Badab War books to guide me in my building (Carcharadon tactical marines will have CCWs, Red Scorpion Sergeants will have Nartheciums and so on)
To get started, here's a Tactical Marine. Any thoughts on which chapter he could belong to?
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The Competitive Pivot
To avoid burying the lede, the TL;DR is that I'm switching to Necrons.
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Every game of 10th that I have played has been with Orks. I've managed to track every game since my third in the (excellent) Tabletop Battles app. You can see my stats below:
As you can see, I've now played thirty games of 10th. And while I have a lot of thoughts about the edition in general, this post is about my experiences playing Orks, and my plans for the foreseeable future.
Evolution of a List
A quick rundown of how to win a game using the Leviathan mission deck:
You can score up to fifty points on the primary objectives
You can score up to forty points from secondary objectives
If you take fixed secondaries, you can only score twenty points from each secondary
Scoring the primary is often about being able to take the objective and hold it. Scoring secondaries is either about having units in the right parts of the table at the right times, or killing specific enemy units (or just in general, for one of them). The choice for fixed or tactical secondaries usually comes down to your opponent and what their list easily gives up (exceptions occur, of course). There are sixteen tactical secondary objectives, and only four require you to kill enemy units; the other ten are of the "unit(s) in the right part(s) of the table at the right time" variety. To score the full points, you need to average 12.5 primary points per turn (as you don't score in the first turn, with one exception), and 8 secondary points per turn. When playing tactical, you can get two secondaries per turn, which each need to score, on average, four points to max score. Tactical secondaries score between two and eight points each, which averages to roughly 4.5 points, but 3/4ths of them score up to 5, another three score up to 8, and one scores only 3.
Ok, so scoring points and winning games with tactical secondaries is about putting units on objectives, surviving on those objectives until you can score, having units that can be in the right place at the right time and, of course, killing the enemy as needed. While you don't have to score the full 90 to win every time (just have to have more than your opponent, afterall), it's generally safer to have a plan on how to get the max. You can win the game by tabling the enemy, but you can also lose after tabling the enemy. You cannot lose by scoring the max number of points (though you can tie, hilariously enough), and you can max score without killing a single enemy unit (though that is so incredibly unlikely to occur).
Over time, I learned these facts. I started early with Mozrog, pound-for-pound the best beatstick in the index, but I quickly grew so enamored with him that I had to add another Squigboss. I bought, assembled, and (barely) painted a unit of Flash Gitz, and converted a counts-as Kaptin Badrukk, after I played another Ork and saw how deadly that unit's shooting was (especially their overwatch, a tool I otherwise don't think Orks can make use of). I went from three trukks to four, then five, and eventually six, and I think if there wasn't a limit, I would have kept going. They are the right combination of fast, durable and cheap, and they consistently score me secondary objectives. And I've expanded my Squighog Boys unit from being mobile objective doers to being the primary hammer of my list.
Some things haven't worked for me:
- Beastsnagga Boyz and the Beastboss. I've used this unit in the vast majority of my games, but I just can't help but feel like it doesn't do enough. Often, the best thing about it was the OC, which I can get cheaper from regular Boyz. The Beastboss has been especially disappointing, as he is so reliant on generating Devastating Wounds in order to do any damage, and even against vehicles, it's pretty easy to have a bad turn and not get enough 4+s. At least the Squigbosses are durable enough that when they whiff, they can be expected to stick around and get another shot at it. This is a recent drop for me, but I can't imagine I'll miss them.
- Nobz and the Warboss. I've gone back and forth on these guys, from running a full 10-man, to having none, to having two 5-mans (each with a warboss), and most recently, back to a full 10-man. The truth is, they are the best source Orks have for a large quantity of AP-2 attacks, something we sorely need. But they suffer from being too easy to kill; -1 to-be-wounded is nice and all, but 2W and no innate invulnerable save just make them too soft, and we can also slap a -1 to-be-wounded on any non-vehicle unit. This is a high-finesse unit and one I've been really trying to use well.
- Anything that shoots other than Flash Gitz. We just don't have enough support, our weapons are good enough, and we can't field enough of it to matter.
In the end, this meant I've found the most success by making lists that focus on staying power over offensive burst; a few units can lay down the hurt, but the vast majority of the list isn't interested in killing the enemy as much as it's just trying to find points to score. And even those best, most deadly units, the Squigbosses and Squighog Boyz, are really about being ultra-durable and forcing the opponent to over-invest in killing them, lest they let my stuff get to them. That means it's very viable for me to keep my units on objectives but out of Line-of-Sight and force the enemy to over-commit to clear the objective. It's simple, it's effective, and frankly, it's a lot of fun.
But, there's a problem.
The Problem
Sitting back on objectives and forgoing charging into the enemy isn't very Orky. There's room for kunnin' and I'm a Blood Axe at heart, but still, it will never feel right to go "my Squighog Boys are not going to move to charge that Dreadnought" and instead just score points by sitting there. But, that's what I'm often doing! And, again, I like it! Playing the game tactically and for the win is an enjoyable experience. It's just not what I signed up for when I selected the greenskins.
There's a couple more:
- I cannot paint Orks fast enough to react to changing metas and my own preferences. I paint every detail on my Orks and use a lot of colors, and it just takes me forever, which isn't ideal when you want to quickly swap and add units.
- I hate the movement rules in the Charge and Fight phases. I just don't find it fun to do, and those phases being so key to my army's (meager) offensive output actively saps my enjoyment.
So, what's the solution?
The SolutionEnter the Necrons. They have it all:
- Primarily a shooting army, so no need to perform charge/fight phase movement a dozen times per game.
- A quick paint scheme that I can bang out fast when my list needs to change.
- Similar overall strategy of holding objectives and just surviving the onslaught to score points.
But most importantly;
- They play competitively like they are in the fluff.
Currently, competitive Necrons are all about using "bricks" of either Warriors or Lychguard (or even one of each!), getting them on objectives in No Man's Land and just outlasting everything. They get killed and then just get back up, an implacable force that laughs at the puny weapons of the younger species of the galaxy. Their esoteric and arcane technologies allow them to make the laws of physics into tools for acts akin to magic, such as the teleportation of troops. And so on and on, fluff reflected on the tabletop in a manner that isn't just faithful, but is also good.
It's for these reasons that I'll be switching to Necrons, a faction I didn't even consider at the beginning of the edition, as the name of this blog implies. In fact, other than painting the Indomitus set three years ago, and another five Immortals as a palette cleanser some time later, I never seriously thought about collecting the army, let alone playing them as my main faction. But then again, 10th is my edition of trying new things, so I should be less surprised.
But for now, the Kharezt dynasty awakens, and marches to war. - 10
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Latest Entry
Strike Force Agemman
So I’m new to the B&C blog feature, but thought I would use it to post the progress of my new Ultramarines army.
I originally intended it to be a a Third Company army, but plans have changed, and I am now planning on building it as a 1st Company Strike Force.
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Hello all!
Sorry that my normal posting schedule got disrupted by NoVa and life, but the balance dataslate is a perfect chance to slip in a low effort post!
Some knee jerk thoughts:
Cult Ambush
This was actually a fairly frustrating change to me. The end result is for most practical intents and purposes, models are coming back on a 4+. It’s just….very convolutedly written and I wish they had made it simpler and more streamlined. To be honest, I don’t particularly like the direction they took GSC with this rule. I appreciate how it is meant to represent on the table how they act as an army, but it’s entirely too random and difficult to balance. As most tabletop gamers are all too aware, the four ups are fickle.
Modifying Stratagem’s Costs
This one is a bit hidden, so you are quite forgiven if you miss it, but it will primarily impact the Nexos.
“Rules that modify the CP cost of a Stratagem but do not specify the name of the Stratagem can only be used to affect the CP cost of Battle Tactic Stratagems.”
“Rules that allow you to use a Stratagem even if another unit has been targeted by that Stratagem this phase or turn, but that do not specify the name of the Stratagem, can only be used to use Battle Tactic Stratagems”.
List of Battle Tactic Stratagems for GSC:
- Index - A Perfect Ambush
- Index - Coordinated Trap
- Core - Command Reroll
- Core - Go to Ground
It’s….a short list. The good news is that it won’t impact free Grenades and the like for the Saboteur. However, coupled with the points hikes, I expect that the Nexus will be mostly gone from lists now, given that the singular best Stratagem it can impact now is A Perfect Ambush, and that may not be worth the 60 pts.
Also: the Double Demo Alpha Strike is Dead, long live the Double Demo Alpha Strike.
Atalan Jackals
They come in within 9” of a table edge now, not 6”. This is mostly a quality of life change due to the new 3” restriction on Ambush Markers. Not huge, but welcome.
Points Increases
We’re not surprised right?
For the most part, I don’t really see anything too tragic here. I stayed away from the triple Primus build for a reason, and when they came for it…they came for it. I still think you’ll see the Primus running around, just probably in more measured ways.
Only one thing I do want to harp on--I HATE the 10%(ish) hike on the Aberrants. They were already expensive and they had a unique role of tanking in an army that severely lacks for it. What a frustrating shame, clearly it was to pre-prune ideas of an immediate pivot to Muscle Beach.
Moving Forward Productively
So…what are the future building blocks?
- Acolytes got off relatively lightly, so plenty of them in the future.
- Nexos are probably out.
- I do want to highlight Hybrid Metamorphs went completely untouched and they have been performing VERY WELL for me. I have more to say on them later on, but I think they have been seriously overlooked.
- Kellermorphs are also untouched, and very competitive for having a second unit that can 3” deep strike in a turn for scoring secondaries. Don’t sleep on their point scoring value!!!
- Brood Brothers--Manticores took a big hike and Scout Sentinels a smaller one, but Basilisks are unchanged and perhaps quite the opportunity….!!!
Shake ups can be tough, but it’s always a good chance to re-evaluate everything with fresh eyes!
Back to the Dojo!!!
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Indeed, it gets a posing which is more of frozen statuary than of dynamic warrior...
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By The Yncarne · Posted
the core model isn't super flexible for modeling options. -
By saucermenstudios · Posted
Just a few days left to join our DarkMyth Dungeon Kickstarter! Grab 260+ push-fit, modular STL files that create limitless dungeon layouts for different layouts every game! With more stretch goals waiting to be unlocked, there’s never been a better time to back. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/saucermenstudios/darkmyth-dungeon -
By SvenIronhand · Posted
I'm glad you like it. The Law Dog will also be getting a model as part of a more general 'Personalities of the Mavor Sub-sector" series, and Heinrad already has one (see second image below). As for the fluff itself, it was inspired partially by Tonto, as I said, and of all things - Jack Kirby's New Gods no. 7, entitled "The Pact". Niall will also take up another role later in life - one similar to that of Viktor Reznov in his later appearances. Lord Inquisitor Tomas T. Heinrad - a -
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