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Since I have a WIP thread, may as well have a HoH thread for completed stuff Kroot are fun to paint

Nothing to see here The content is in another castle or just start here http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/222538-another-diy-chapter-blog-for-the-omnissiah-9514/?p=2963992

Hello frater! As part of my hobby progress this year I'm working on the Necron Combat Patrol. Now I have nothing against the design of the Doomstalker (it's adorable), the towering walker look doesn't mesh well with the old school theming of my army. I've been sketching out some designs for an obelisk or pylon-styled replacement that will fit in better with my old school Monolith, but am having issues deciding between my two best ideas. Any opinions or feedback would be appreciated!

Heeeeeey Everybody, with the advent of ETL I've decided to open my own ETL plog. So, some background. I've been collecting for several years, playing off and on as I've found time/opponents. Space marines were my first army, and my first model was a land raider redeemer. It took me a year to build and paint the bloody thing (chassis assembly, mainly), by which point I had painted at least a few other models. Soon after, necrons followed, led by a catacomb command barge. Soon after, they expanded, then everything kind of hit a halt for a while, both marines and necrons, but my love of lore-writing certainly did not. Somewhere in here I discovered the Bolter and Chainsword, joined, accidentally...well insulted isn't right, but had a very awkward moment with a mod, attempted the Iron Gauntlet (we're still waiting on that judgement, Olis, if you see this), and then that took me to day. Dark Imperium was purchased when it came out, which prompted a flurry of new lore-scribblings about my chapter and the primaris, painted up, and has mostly sat dormant for lack of games to play. ETL has inspired me to majorly expand my necrons, with a possible out-of-competition marine vow to finish a half-painted unit. I'll try to be documenting everything from here on out. Photos of my collection in detail will follow, for now i will post my 'forum Christmas card' for a majorly out of focus shot. Anyway, here's my current WIP progress vow for ETL. One single character, this is my Deathmark Vizier Rezak the Executioner. I'm rather proud of the conversion work I've been able to do on the model, despite the fact it's mostly been done on his gun XP. I won't always think to update this in future, so some prodding from anyone who reads may be helpful. Cheers, D-P Lenoch.

To avoid burying the lede, the TL;DR is that I'm switching to Necrons. ----- 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: 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 Solution Enter 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.

https://www.battle-report.com/2018/01/22/necrons-vs-tzeentch-daemons/ Cheers, Thoth

Yet another Monday rolls around to start a brand new week, so may as well greet it with a brand new Glacial Geek Battle Report! https://youtu.be/h85Z1iciG9s This week my Dark Angels take on the Necrons! The previous mission had ended in failure, but that did not mean the Dark Angels were ready to give up on this planet. More time was needed to fully evacuate the planet and prepare Exterminatus. The forces of the Unforgiven rallied and re-established a last line of defense against the awakening Necrons in hope that their sacrifice would help to save other planets the fate sealed within this one. Will the Dark Angels be able to hold back the Necron hordes, or will the Living Metal tide prove once again impossible to stop? Watch and find out!

i hadn't played against necrons in 9th but i did in 8th, and tbh i didn't find them very fun to play against. everything getting obsec, and every unit or nearly every unit reviving multiple models from units that were nearly destroyed is extremely frustrating and not very fun to play against. talk about a feels bad moment.

“Look not upon the Gods, hear not their honeyed words, and speak not unto them in prayer or worship.” -The Three Edicts of Uridimmu, Lord Executor of the Sāqīqu dynasty, Slayer of the Seven Divine Kings, God-Killer, He who has walked in the Space Betwixt, Void Touched, Arch Misotheist, and he of a thousand thousand titles. “Welcome to the ten thousand Satraps, Imperial! The Sāqīqu dynasty extends its warm welcome, asking that you only obey the edicts as laid down by Uridimmu…” -Automated message, broadcast along the border system of the Satrapies of Uridimmu. Broadcast in Low and High Gothic, Anglic, Frankish and Binary. [iNLOAD ACCESS GRANTED] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ “You prattle on about your Gods, those bloated four cancers that squat in the cursed flows of the Immaterium. So determined to illuminate the rest of your squabbling species with this so-called Truth. You and your mewling Gene-Father disgust me Word Bearer, I have crushed civilizations far more mighty than yours, swam in the blood of whole species more worthy of my respect. Uridimmu is coming, and he shall hurl you and that pontificating Primarch back into the abyss.” -Belus, The King who has No Equals in all the Lands, Annihilator of Tyrants, the Death that came to Xanadu, Grand Satrap of the Lagash Cluster and the Numinous Reefs. Addressing Xanu Corraith, Dark Acolyte of the Word Bearers on the despoiled shrine world of St Runill’s Repose. Belus, Grand Satrap and close confidant of Uridimmu, commander of the Burnished Ten thousand. ‘Out of the dark did I hear the march of a great number of armoured feet, and thus the Burnished Ten thousand did appear. Their deathly visages hidden, and in their cold red eyes I saw only the promise of death.’ Canticles of Null, repressed Heretical Work. ‘The Daīrīu, the mailed fist of Uridimmu’s legions, and a backbone of a thousand thousand conquests in his name..” -Beyond the Rim: Tales from the Edgeworlds, Memoirs of Maria Von Syle, Rogue Trader. ‘Seven times did the accursed heads of the Hydra attempt to establish themselves in Uridimmu’s demesne, fleeing their failed treachery, and seven times did the Daīrīu of the Burnished Legion hurl them back.’ Triumphs of the Sāqīqu, Apocryphal work originating from the Endworlds, estimated to be written M32.64. ‘Every kilometer along the Royal Highway is marked with a burnt and scarred suit of once shimmering blue power armour, impaled upon adamantium spines. Their armour ranges from ancient Crusader pattern plate, all the way to the sleek lines of Maximus plate. Each suit representing a Legionnaire of the accursed XX, slain as they fled into the Endworlds to escape the Scouring. Belûs informs me that these grim milestones stretch for almost a thousand kilometers, and though I do not weep for these traitors, the thought of the equivalent of an entire Chapter so dismissively annihilated, chills my blood.’ -Beyond the Rim: Tales from the Edgeworlds, Memoirs of Maria Von Syle, Rogue Trader. ‘Those that have burnt the Temples to Ash’- The Seventeenth Pirru of Daīrīu, members of the Burnished Ten Thousand, led by a Guzalû Oh wow, it's been a while but I am back now, and have hopped on the 9th edition Necron train, with a dynasty that is a little more cosmic horror and mesopotamian, than space-egyptians. I’m also collaborating with Apologist and co in his fantastic Endworlds project, so expect to see some more crossovers soon….and of course welcome to the Ten thousand Satrapies….

After several years of not painting anything 40k related, I have returned. Drawn in by all the new and improved Necron models. I have chosen the Mephrit Dynasty, as I like their rules, colour scheme and lore. So far I have only gotten the test model warrior painted so I could figure out exactly how I wanted to do the colours. Next I have to finish assembling the first box of warriors and get the remaining 9 warriors and 3 scarab bases painted.

Necrons place 2nd at a tournament. Good to see some variety of units too. You can find the article here.

Hi all, I thought I'd post a writeup of the Crusade game I played yesterday. As noted in the title, it's a text-based batrep as we didn't think to take pictures, but I do have an army shot that I took after the fact (spoilered for mobile convenience). We played Combat Patrol, so fairly small armies. The Khansu Reawoken: Disgraced Prince Rakzan, with the Immortal Pride Warlord Trait and the Guantlet of the Conflagrator relic (model doesnt have a resorb or warscythe so no good relics, and ive always wanted an excuse to try the conflagrator) Coldhowl, a technomancer with no upgrades at all. will probably change that as time goes on and i figure out how crusade works more Coldhowl's Boys, my converted squad of skitarii warriors The Red Butchers, a squad of 5 flayer immortals armed with gauss blasters Serasona's Bouncers, a pair of cryptothralls Serasona's Swarm, a trio of scarabs that will be expanded later the Night Lords: chaos terminator lord with axe and combibolter, the night lords precognitive WL trait, and a net that gives -1 Attack, to a minimum of 1 warp talons with lightning claws raptors with...something. I shot them off the board before they were relevant, and I only remembered the WT's loadout because they were particularly scary a squad of 5 CSM with a missile launcher a squad of 5 CSM with a plasma gun and a power maul Mission: Assassinate Night Lords won the first roll-off, and chose to be the defender. This gave him a larger deployment zone, and the first deployment choice, as well as Combat Restoratives for a 6+ FNP and IWND. He deploys his lord in the center of his deployment zone as he is required to do, and then deploys his close-combat squads fairly aggressively. The CSM with the missile launcher hangs out in a forest at the back of the table, and the CSM with the plasma gun acts as a sort of bodyguard. I deploy my scarabs behind the bastion thats roughly in the center of the table, and deploy my infantry and characters fairly aggressively. As the attacker, I get to choose who goes first, and I have to wipe out those melee squads before they can touch me, or I'm dead, no ifs ands or buts. Lightning claws will shred everything I have. First Battle Round: I have chosen Reaper as my agenda, since I figure I might get lucky and get one unit with two unit kills, or spread the kills fairly evenly over my squads and thereby get to choose who gets it. I reveal my first command protocol. It's Vengeful Stars, and as much as people like to dunk on them, I think this one is honestly one of the most important ones you can choose, especially if you have first turn. I'm playing a Mephrit Dynasty vassal, rules-wise (lorewise we're a vassal of my Naculan, who have some different codes but I do like the Mephrit code and the Naculan have used it in the past). I annihilate both squads of jump troops. My immortals are shooting at -3 AP, or -4 if they're getting sixes, and gauss flayers are actually pretty decent marine killers at -2 AP as well. My cryptek steals my immortals' thunder by sniping the last raptor, so he gets himself a tidy ranged kill. My scarabs hide behind the bastion, whereupon my opponent forgets they're there. On his turn, he moves up and starts shooting. Bolter and missile fire kills the immortals, plus a little help from demon shell from the chaos lord. (I roll really poorly on my defensive rolls this game, I think I made like 4 total saves? And I don't think I passed a single reanimation roll), and overcharged plasma gun fire blows up my crytpothralls--which at least had the added benefit of attracting the bolter fire from my warriors, as he didnt declare split-fire beforehand. Melee is joined quickly. I overwatch with my warriors, killing a CSM, and his lord rolls a 6 on a 10-inch charge before rerolling it with his precognition trait and spiking boxcars to charge in like a freight train. I decide to pile in with my overlord for several reasons, one of which being him telling me that he has a strat to prevent me from falling back, so there is no chance of me pulling my warriors back and then blowing him to hell with a tachyon arrow. Melee knocks Rakzan down to a single wound, but his invul save holds on at the last second. Three warriors fall to the CSM. I swing back, and the bayonets down another CSM, while Rakzan drops the hammer glaive on the chaos lord, knocking away half his wounds with two swift swings. I actually fail a morale test for the first time in quite a long time, as Night Lords have some nasty modifiers, and the Immortal Pride WLT doesn't do exactly what I thought it did, but I only lost one model to it. Battle Round Two: My turn rolls around again. I'm now in the protocol of the hungry void--the melee protocol, for all the good it will do me. My scarabs dart over the bastion, and position themselves for a flanking charge. Coldhowl lobs a few shots from his 'staff of light' towards the CSM in the back forest, but I'm not ignoring cover anymore and they fail to wound. Raksan triggers his gauntlet, but fails to roll any mortal wounds. Now it's charging time! The scarabs dive in on top of my target. I spend a CP to try and detonate one of the bases, and roll a 4 on the D6 the strat requires me to roll. Ok, so they get to blow up. I roll a D3 to see how many mortal wounds I deal to him. I. Roll. A. 5. The chaos lord dies in a shower of shrapnel and sacrificial scarabs, as he is unable to pass any of his restoratives rolls. And that right there is game! Slay the Warlord is worth 40 VP, and I got 10 VP for wounding him the previous battle round. He got 10 VP for killing a unit with his WL (the immortals he gunned down with daemon shell), and we both get 10 apiece for having painted armies, but the way the mission is scored makes it almost impossible for the defender to win unless he keeps his WL alive. We play out the rest of the battle round but the only thing left on the table for him at the end is the missile squad, who tries to knock my cryptek down, but I spike a 6 on his armor save and barely keep him alive to save him from an Out of Action Check. Post-Game: There is much apologizing for wiping a third of his army off the table in one turn, and disbelief at a scarab's blowing up actually doing something useful instead of being marginally better than their melee attack. Rakzan is marked for greatness, which in combination with battle experience and agenda experience (he slew the remaining two CSM locked in combat with me) gives him a battle honor! I opt to give him the +1 Damage melee weapon trait, making his glaive 1D3+1 damage. The Immortals (name subject to change) receive the 'veteran warriors' Battle Honor from the mission reward, giving them native to-hit rerolls of one. All OOA checks are passed with aplomb on my end--the CSM bolter/plasma squad fails theirs, and he opts for a loss of XP, bringing them back down to 0. All in all, I had a lot of fun. My crusade roster also includes a blob of 20 warriors and a royal warden, but I prepped for an objective game rather than a 'kill everything' game and somehow lucked into an opponent with MSU, which allowed me to practice defeat-in-detail. My opponent remarked that he'd forgotten that the scarabs existed, and that I outmaneuvered him with them, so I'm rather pleased with that. Let this be the first of many victories in the Khansu's quest to regain their former glory!

I've recently picked up Necrons, and I'm planning on taking them through the Escalation League I'm running from February through to June. In that time I'm going to the Throne of Skulls Maelstrom in Feb, the 40k Team Championship in April and Brotherhood of Hellstorm in May. I'll try to find something in March to bridge the gap if possible too. I'm going with the Midwinter Mini's Sandstone scheme, and I've done things a little backwards from my usual approach - I haven't done any test models to completion but I have built/textured/primed about 1500 points, and built another 500ish. I have a 4 day holiday coming up week after next, so I'm hoping to get my new airbrush spun up then and get a good chunk of models ready to go. Couple of quick shots just to document current progress, nothing majorly interesting to look at. The second picture in there is my 1750 list I tried today, bases with blue on them were run as Sautekh and the rest were run as Nihilakh. Trying to settle on how I want to run my list for Februaury before I finish painting, my plan is to use different colour glows to seperate different Dynastys. I'll also be trying out putting some batreps in this thread, there's a real lack of Necron content floating around and I'm a firm believer in being the change you want to see!

Okay, so. I had an idea, then accidentally'd myself into a Tzeentch Warpsmith with a modified, reprogrammed Necron Scarab familiar with an attached flamer and a stolen Wraithaxe and wraithbone prosthetic. Is there any precedent to do this?

Hi folks, I'm taking part in a fairly informal Tale of X Gamers with a few of my gaming mates as a way to cut down our backlogs while we're in lockdown. The end game is to have a 1500pt army by the end of December. We haven't established a rigorous system of "Paint X in month 1" as we're all at different stages of life with different amounts of free time etc. That said, we're all aiming to get a Kill Team for our respective force done first. As you may have already guessed, I'm doing Necrons. It's not an army I've ever collected before, but I bought a friend out of the hobby a few years back and it included a large force of Necrons. I sold off a lot of the models to recoup my costs, but I still have a reasonable amount of unpainted models. I'm currently aiming for a 500 point list consisting of two squads of Necron Warriors, some Scarabs, a squad of Tomb Blades and a Lord to lead them. I have a habit of starting projects and not finishing them, so the current plan is to paint this all up first before getting any more models. This is the Lord I've converted to lead my 500 point list. Here you can see a painted an unpainted Necron Warrior. For the scheme, I wanted to keep it dark and broody with lots of dark metallics broken up by glowing Gauss weaponry. The aim here was to create a scheme which looks decent on the tabletop and is quick and easy to replicate, so I actually stick with it. My current thinking is that I'll get all of my warriors up to the same level as the painted warrior (primed and washed, with the details picked out) and will go back to add some highlights and smooth out the transitions on the Gauss weapons. On the left we have a sneaky git perfectly ordinary Necron, who will be used to represent a specialist in Kill Team. C&C Welcome. Dallo

++Initiate Post Protocols++ Greetings fellow humans [Meatbags] Like a lot of us, Lockdown has given me a lot of free time... However it also holds the bulk of my army locked away in my FLGS. I've taken this as a sign from he who is three in one to grab myself some new units and dig through my pile of shame - I've got a lot of it up to tabletop standard now so I feel it's time to share some of it: First up some Priests. Nothing flashy, not much to say about these lads, other than I lack the wash needed to do their eyes to completion [Drak'N'shade] So I have to wait for GW to send out that order to finish that. But they're looking okay. A Gaggle of stickpriests [There is 13 because I used 2 bodies for conversions at an earlier time and had 2 new boxes in the pile of shame]. More Dunecrawler more good. [Again, waiting on a new pot of Ushabti bone to do highlights on the legs]. A whole load of Ebay rescue bots that needed a new home. Some more Rangers for the pile - I have a shovel to remove these lads from the table [i love them though]. Waiting on some more Ebay deliveries (Including a much needed Daedalosus model I found cheap). Anticipation is overtaking me, Engine War, Pariah and the reveal this Saturday, my wallet shall suffer. ++End Post++

Good morning everyone, after the Preview from the last weekend I hit a wall regarding a certain issue... should I buy the old Necron models or should I wait for the new ones? I wanted to start a Necron army for the release of Pariah. I have still the old Start Collecting and a Necorn half of Forgebane (all unbuilt). While I really like the look of the new models, I am not so keen on paying 50 bucks or so (no clue how much they will cost) for one Destroyer or 100 for a Monolith. So what are your thoughts? Will the prices for the Necron range explode? Should I buy the new models or should I stick with the old ones? (e.g. Destroyers and Monolith) Thank you for your feedback.

Hello all. I'm setting this up for an eventual dive into both a Primaris army and a Necron host. Once the Imperium mag gets kicking into high gear for the US, I'll be attempting to paint a unit or two, or whatever they send me, within a month. Right now, I've got some Necrons coming in sometime this week (managed to snag a couple of Indomidus Skorpeth Destroyer units and a set of Warriors) and next month should have some Primaris to work on. So I'll have those going on plus finishing up my Inquisition army and finishing a Harlequin army as well. Lots of stuff! The fluff for the two new armies will be fairly simple- The Haunted Legions of Sarkon is the main army of the Empire of the Severed, a even creepier version of the normal Necron dynasties that seems to not talk to anyone else and just attack. So fun stuff there! They'll be heavily rusted and have power-sources that are very rarely glowing, showing that this dynasty has limited resources and stays in low-powered mode as much as possible. As for the Riven... They are my legion from the Five Ruins AU on this site, but they are the Riven as they were before their Primarch was founded and they became the sorcerer/Tzeentch legion. A brief description- The Riven are assumed to be an Ultramarines successor from the Ultima founding. Their specific gene-legacy is in doubt due to a misplacing of records from Archmagos Cawl's gene-labs to the Administratum. Regardless of their geneseed provenance, the Riven have proven to be very successful urban fighters, using a combination of infiltrating Phobos squads to track and terminate enemy command units and then following up with a heavy infantry strike to destroy the rest of the foe. Currently the Riven are fighting alongside the Ultramarines in various theaters, gaining valuable experience from the veterans of Ultramar. Anyway, I'll be posting in this thread as I get stuff done and hopefully a lot more as 2022 rolls around. See you later!

I've got my Iron Gauntlet batrep ready to go! I will be sharing a game I played against myself between my Guard and my Necrons. I played somewhat fast and loose with the rules (no dynastic codes, no CP, none of the silly little command protocols, I barely touched orders, i ignored minimum game board size as you will likely see) as this was mostly a narrative game. The two rhinos are proxies for basic-loadout chimerae, which I felt were needed for both balance purposes and lore reasons. But first, lore! -- “This moon is barely habitable to all life, Warden,” grated Disgraced Prince Rakszan. “How are these...hew-mons...making battle upon it?” Cryptwarden Merisekh shook her head. “It is unknown, Prince. Perhaps they have adaptations.” “Adaptations? For a planetoid with a thin atmosphere and radiation blasted? They must be exceptionally strong adaptations. The Necrontyr, they would have died here quickly, weaklings that they were. Tell me, how did your master claim this place prior to biotransference?” “Our master,” Merisekh said, emphasizing the nature of the new relationship between Rakszan and her Phaeron, “Acquired this moon when it was still in orbit of a secondary coreworld and therefore held a stronger atmosphere. 60 million years is sufficient for such things to degrade, especially when coupled with Aeldari interference,” the Cryptwarden spat. “They are truly detestable,” Rakszan agreed. “Still, we must repel these invaders from our lord’s holdings. What appears to be their objective?” Merisekh conjured a display, showing the strategic situation of the matters at hand. “A techno-viral listening strain has confirmed that what appears to be the main thrust of their assault is targeting this secondary tomb complex entrance;” she indicated with a gesture, “and there are harrying strikes occurring here, here, and here.” Rakszan leaned forward from his throne--a vanity, perhaps, but such was a thing all but a very rare few Necron nobles were prone to--and reviewed the map. “Our forces do not appear to be mounting much of a defense.” “Our forces are limited, Prince. Whoever is commanding these hew-mons is intelligent, and grasps well the concept of attacking where the enemy is not. We cannot respond to all of these attacks at once.” “And why not?” he demanded. “Because whatever lord or lordess fished you out of the hyperspace hellholes wasn’t completely in our Lord’s favor at the time, and therefore he was predisposed to dislike you. As such, you were given limited resources, which were in no particular order, two legions, a hunting party, three raiders and a light cruiser, and oversight. That is the extent of your resources, my lord, and if you are incapable of fulfilling our master’s demands then I am well within my rights to sever this partnership.” Her claws drummed pointedly on the hilt of her relic gauss blaster. “Now, if you do not wish to have that happen,” Merisekh growled, “you will listen to my advice like a good noble, and not whine when things do not go your way. “...What. Do you. Suggest.” he ground out. “I recommend pulling our forces away from the outlying defensive posts. They are spreading us too thin, and this mechanized force is capable of smashing through them. A more concentrated stand at the tomb entrance should better allow us to withstand the assault.” She cocked her head. “Of course, even then, you will be required to stand in defense of this complex yourself.” It was almost said as a challenge. “Of course.” He wasn’t going to rise to it, however. Rakszan had enough problems without adding the anger of his watcher to them. And now, the army shots. I may misplace a couple shots, but I think I will largely get them in chronological order at least. I was also certain I had a deployment pic but I guess not. Turn One Guard: The Cantorellian 23rd took the first turn as slaves to narrative. Chimeras advance. Limited Leman Russ fire and sentinel lascannon support kill one scarab. Turn One Necrons: The Necrons advance. The Guard thought they were facing the bulk of the remaining defenders, but they were all deceived, for another entrance to the tomb was made. Another phalanx of necron warriors appeared in the heights above, where ancient ruins once stood. They opened fire, their weapons plinking off the armor of the Leman Russ. Their comrades were more successful, dealing concerning but not serious damage to the chimera with the help of the ascendant prince. The scarabs closed the distance and encircled a Chimera, eating into its armor.

It's been a long time away, but I have been lurking for years. I semi-officially "retired" from the hobby back in 2015, deciding to put my free time into video games as they were simpler and I could stay in touch with friends scattered across the US. The bug never left though, even through the myriad of sell-offs I undertook. I couldn't part with the massive SM collection I had amassed or my beloved Orks. I did part with my entire CSM Bits collection (a whopping 10 pounds worth) which I still regret. Ah well, the new CSM sculpts are light years better than the previous ones. I've been reacquainting myself with my hobby tools, paints, brushes etc. Tossing out old paints that are no good, etc. My kids bought me an airbrush package a couple of Christmases ago, so I've broken that out and started that (steep) learning curve as well. As an exercise, I pulled out a 3 man set of Primaris Intercessors and spent a couple of weeks with them. The first one I painted to "completion", not worrying about clean blends and niggling details, just the joy of painting again. It's always been my zen place. The place where I have lost thousands of hours over the last three decades. Also the first steps towards cementing a scheme for my massive army that I've never painted. The airbrush gives me hope. Pics are all from my iPhone. My light booth and camera setup are all still stuffed away, so it might be some time before I can get better images. This is all brush work, using P3 paints exclusively as I know exactly what they can and cannot do. It felt good to not only paint a model for the first time in 4 years, but actually allow myself to call it good enough. No worries about smooth blends and clean lines, just exploring the sculpt with the brush. I'm my own worst critic (as are many hobbyists) and I'm trying to put that aside in favor of enjoyment. Painting & converting at the professional levels sucked all of the joy away from the hobby which led in large part to my retirement. With the first model wrapped up I mulled it over for a few days and went on to the second. I went for a lighter gray base color, wanting more of a "cool" white. A bit neater this time, playing more with the hard edges and recesses. The first one used green on the lenses, so I went with blue on this one to see the difference. I didn't bother finishing the base as these are not the bases the army will be standing on. A bit closer now, much smoother. Muscle memory starting to come back to me. The third I focused entirely on the white, ignoring pretty much everything else. I'm not going to have any bare heads in the army, so no point in working on the head. Still working out whether or not to add a dark red to the helmets for sergeants. I've added a skull to the backpack of the sergeant to indicate rank and to make them easier to ID on sight. (Not that I play or anything.) The lighting in the pic almost makes it look unpainted, but the white is indeed painted and the smoothest white I've done in years. Trouble is, it was with the brush and if I want to finish the army some time in the next decade I will need to focus on the airbrush for the majority of the work. Fortunately power armor lends itself very well to that.