Revitalising my BA

[Zeller]

Quite an impressive Sternguard Veteran. His face really epitomises what the BA art depicts a Blood Angel to look like underneath that helmet. Clever idea with the helmet by the way. It's a very nice model and a wonderfully vibrant and solid red.

[tagsta]

incredible conversion!

I hope the discarded helmet won't break off easily!

 

I also painted this particular head a few weeks ago but for some reason it didn't turn out very well so I guess I will strip the face and repaint it :)

looking forward to see some FW MkIV on the sternguard!

[Baal Dropout]

I'm liking the Sternguard (kinda miss that oldskul Baal Pred head too :lol:)

B)

[ancient god]

Thanks guys, glad you like him. I'm planning some more simple conversions for the squad right now.

 

Tagsta, I'd love to build 1 or 2 Sternguard with MkIV plate but I'm still waiting on FW to deliver! :D

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I think most often simple conversions often end up being the most striking.

 

G

[Demoulius]

I think most often simple conversions often end up being the most striking.

 

G

word :)

[ancient god]

Today is now officially Chore Day on which I celebrate my hatred of chores by getting them done and hating them all the while.

 

Up for today:

-wash dishes and laundry

-paint remaining 3 RAS to fill up squad to ten

-paint eight (8!) jump packs for RAS and VAS

-go out into the cold and conduct a supply raid in my local super market before I die of scurvy.

 

I've carefully put all this off until now, only to make the most out of Chore Day.

[Chaplain Desmodus]

*sigh*

 

You rule.

 

:D

 

As always, I find myself in love with your models. :cuss

[ancient god]

Thanks Des, appreciate it. :cuss

 

I finally received my FW order, MkIV Sternguard inbound some time soon.

[ancient god]

Hey guys,

 

I finished my Land Raider Redeemer last night to use it in a game later today. At long last. I'll take some pictures at my GW later today.

 

I'm also finally nearing completion on my first assault squad with only the second melta gunner remaining, the other nine are done.

 

I played a couple of games the last few weeks, mostly with low points. But here's an army shot of what I used for 1000 points last Friday (played against mobile Ulthwé Eldar):

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y254/ancientgod/Blood%20Angels/BA1000.jpg

 

Librarian - Jump Pack, Fear of the Darkness, Unleash Rage

Furioso - Blood Talons, hvy flamer, melta

in Drop Pod (which is not done, shame on me!!)

Full Tac Squad - PF, flamer, hvy Bolter

9-man RAS - PF, melta

Vindicator - siege shield

Baal Predator - hvy Bolter sponsons

 

I won the game 1:0 objectives in spite of my RAS never reaching CC and being shot to pieces. Fear paid for itself yet again when the Librarian cleared the Eldar obj in what was to be the last turn in the game.

 

Other than that, I've glued a squad of Sanguinary Guard in anticipation of the Stormraven, and another single Sternguard vet. I'm really taking my time with the Sternguard, doing single models in between other squads as a treat in a way. :) Makes building and painting them much more enjoyable.

 

So, LRR and RAS pics later today!

[IronKobra]

They look great as a group shot! Lovely stuff mate

[ancient god]

So, played a game today and took some pictures of my LRR.

 

Pictures first:

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y254/ancientgod/Blood%20Angels/IMG_1250.jpg

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y254/ancientgod/Blood%20Angels/IMG_1255.jpg

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y254/ancientgod/Blood%20Angels/IMG_1258.jpg

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y254/ancientgod/Blood%20Angels/IMG_1260.jpg

 

Pics are crappy as ever. One of these days I'm going to have to take some proper pictures of everything.

 

Some parts of the model I'm not so happy with, but I started my two LRs very soon after I got back into BA and they suffer a little from that.

 

 

I played 1250 points against Tau today and we rolled the killpoint mission with regular 12" deployment. He got first turn and chose to use it.

 

His army:

Shas'O - melta, plasma

2x Crisis Shas'Vre - plasma, burst

 

3x Crisis - plasma, burst

 

10x Warriors

 

10x Warriors with 'Fish

 

5x Scouty marker guys with 'Fish

 

Hammerhead tank

 

 

My army:

Jump Librarian - Fear, Rage

 

Furioso - melta, hvy flamer, blood talons

drop pod w. beacon

 

Full TAC squad - PF, flamer, hvy bolter

Landraider Redeemer

 

9x RAS - PF, melta

 

Baal Pred - 2x hvy bolters

 

Vindicator - siege shield

 

 

 

I relied heavily on armour and wanted to try deploying the LRR with the TACS by the pod beacon for close-up, Blood Angely carnage.

 

He spread all his stuff along the middle of his board edge in and around some ruins, leaving about 18" of free edge on both sides, except for his marker guys who deployed on my wide left, high up in a building. I deployed the Baal wide left, ready to Scout, the Vindicator wide right, opposing only Crisis, an empty Devilfish and warriors. My RAS and Librarian took the middle and kept mostly out of sight behind the central terrain piece.

My Baal Scouted 18" and popped smoke, partly obscured by a ruin on the Tau's left flank.

 

1. TURN TAU

He markered my Baal and got 4 hits. Some of his Crisis came about and Stunned it. His full Warrior Devilfish skimmed up the same side of the table, followed by the 3 Baal-hunting Crisis. His Hammerhead shot a slug cross-board at my Vindicator but the tank was tucked away safely in a ruin and didn't take damage.

 

1. TURN BA

I dropped my Furioso right into the middle of his line, Hammerhead immediately to his left and Command Crisis team plus 10 Firewarriors in the ruin to his right. The Furioso shot his melta at the Hammerhead but failed to hit it. My RAS moved up through the middle and shot their melta at the full Fish in the middle Shaking it, while my Librarian (who I'll need to name soon) left the squad, jumped into the central building and put the Fear of the Darkness into the footslogging Warriors that held his line. They ran and stopped 2" from the board edge. And 4" from my Dread and Pod. :D

My vengeful Vindicator revved up, crashed out of the building I had deployed it in and shot at the empty Devilfish, taking away its burst cannon.

 

(So by this point, my Furioso had failed to do anything and faced the Shas'O's squad and the Hammerhead, as well as the other 3 Crisis with only the Pod to cover him. I needed the pod to survive so that I could Deep Strike the LRR in later. The librarian had already paid for himself as his FW squad had but a slim chance to be able to consolidate.)

 

2. TURN TAU

My opponent started his turn off by removing the central, footslogging warrior squad from the table.

Both his Shas'O squad and the Hammerhead gathered behind my Furioso, with the pod covering the dreadnought's back and the 5 markers overlooking the scene. His Shaken Devilfish moved right up to my RAS and unloaded 10 warriors, while his regular Crisis gave them cover from some inches away. After all the maneuvering was done, my Furioso, Ancient Uriel by the way, got tagged by the markers and proceeded to illustrate why Tau shooting is not to be laughed at. Uriel went up in a 6" ball of fire and almost damaged two of the HQ Crisis. My RAS took a couple of hits from the Crisis and the mobile squad of warriors found out that they still were so dizzy that they could barely see my RAS, let alone shoot at them. That's Tau depth perception for you. Luckily for the Tau, their drones are opponents to be reckoned with and the two clinging onto the otherwise disarmed Fish shot my Librarian and wounded him, taking him down to 1 HP.

 

2. TURN BA

Now my game plan came to life and it worked so well, the game was basically over after my turn.

My LRR arrived with a 6 on the reserve roll and I placed it squarely between his two Crisis squads, my own drop pod and some craters (one of them clearly Uriel's parting gift). The LRR used one flamer to roast some drones and HP off the regular Crisis and menacingly revved its motor. My RAS jumped past the dizzy FW and landed close-by, between the warriors and the Crisis. The pod wiggled in its own personal crater, hummed a little and forgot to shoot its bolters. Both the Baal and the Vindicator closed with the middle to add their fire to my breakthrough point right around the Landraider. The Baal peppered the Tau scouts with fire and killed one, while the Vindicator came into its own and incinerated the previously Shaken Devilfish and most of the debarked FW around it. Had the Vindicator deviated as little as 3" in the wrong direction, it would have been the RAS on the line.

Said RAS squad meltaed a Crisis and took apart another one in close combat. The last Crisis Shas'Ui survived with one HP and held, giving my Marines all the cover they needed for the next turn.

 

(By now, I had brought all my units onto the battlefield and disrupted the Tau lines more or less completely. The only unharmed squads he had were his HQ and the Hammerhead and we were 1:1 in Kill Points with his numbers dwindling rapidly.)

 

3. TURN TAU

This turn saw his unarmed Devilfish ramming my Vindicator, his marker guys tagging it and his Hammerhead flanking it to shoot a solid slug through its side. The ramming having taken place before the Hammerhead's shooting actually granted my Vindicator cover. He reduced my save to 6+ with his markers and achieved a penetrating hit with 16 penetration only to be foiled by my 6 for the cover roll.

I forget what his Command unit shot at but I took no further casualties. Well, at least on that side of the board... meanwhile, in the central ruin - another pair of now homeless drones (from the mobile warrior squad) homed in on my Librarian and shot their pulse carbines at him. Needless to say he failed another 3+ save and died to a total of 4 drone carbine shots. ;)

My RAS cleaned up the last regular Crisis and consolidated towards the Command Crisis squad that was in/behind the closest ruin, right behind my drop pod.

 

3. TURN BA

This was the last turn of the game. My RAS shot and charged his command, killing half and making the rest disengage off the board edge right behind. The TACs disembarked before their tank turned and proceeded to mop up the remaining 4 firewarriors close by, the ones who had been ignored by the RAS only to get a Demolisher shell to the face. The Baal took care of the last 4 scouts using his high rate of fire, while the Vindicator shot a huge warning shot right off the Hammerheads bow.

 

My opponent conceded after this turn. We were 2:6 in KP and I had 3 fully operational tanks and 6 RAS plus 10 TACs to go on, while he had an unarmed Devilfish and a Hammerhead, plus 4 drones.

 

 

I'm not the greatest tactician in the world but what I take from this game is:

-If you can be reasonably sure you'll have a beacon or two to use, it can be useful to deploy a full LR by air. This game I avoided driving my LRR through multiple craters and ruins and I had a rough 18" half circle to freely deploy it before firing one of its FSCs. That might not always work as well but it was awesome. Especially because I made flying noises while I placed it.

-Fear of the Darkness, most useful power in the book, period. Make it work once a game on a squad near your units and/or the board edge and you're free to let your Librarian get shot up by drones, he's done his job.

-I need more Scouting units (SR!!) and my Vanguard for bigger games. First Strike worked great in this game and I can't see it working any less good in a more focussed list.

-Find a way to maybe make the Dread survive one full turn on board. So far all he does is land, torch, explode.

-20 Marines seem to do fine at 1000-1250 points but I really want another 10 RAS for 1500.

 

Well, that was a long post! I'm not exactly sure what I will paint next but I hope to be able to post another picture update maybe in the weekend.

 

Thanks for reading guys!

[Demoulius]

nice report m8 ;) on the exploding dread, i know how you feel :)

 

smokes MIGHT have helped but then again he had marker lights so its always a gamble :)

 

some questions: why dident you hide the liby in cover, charge him at something or join up with the squad again? seems like a waste to just let him die like that :(

didnt you feel guilty using a land raider in 1250 points? :P

have you used fear before or was this the first time? seems like you made a huge gamble, even if it payed off :P

 

and some advice on 1500 pts. something to consider at least....

 

lose the baal, replace it with the SR and add hurricane bolters. insane torrent of fire. transport for those VV's your talking about (not to mention dreadnought) and a BA only model to boot. cant be more bad ass then that :) mind you carrying so many targets its bound to have A HUGE target over its head. cant really think of a way to keep it and its occupants alive sorry ;)

[ancient god]

No guilt at all! :D I'd have taken more marines but i only have these painted. And I didn't feel like taking the DC today.

 

The Dread could of course have popped smoke but I let him shoot in that turn and he got cover from the drop pod anyway. Turned his back to the pod so that the Tau had to choose between shooting the front or the back with cover. But the markers pretty much negated that anyway.

 

The Librarian was too far removed to rejoin the RAS after that first split. I also wanted him to use his power on another squad, which he did. He tried to shoo away the HQ Crisis but didn't succeed. And he stood in 4+ cover but that didn't make a difference... he only took 4 S5 DS5 shots the entire game and they killed him. Bad luck I guess.

 

I'm definitely planning on using the Stormraven as soon as I get it. 1500 points seems like a very reasonable game size to include one. I'd love to keep the Baal though, for some more 1st turn shooty action. Might replace him with a fiery Baal, though. Less expensive and it uses the Scout move to its fullest.

[Demoulius]

ah i hear you about the liby. second last game i played my liby basicly made 2 psychic test, failed both and killed himself before my opponent could so much as glance at him :tu:

 

ive been meaning to use some new liby powers aside from the SoS and UR combo (but its soooo good ;)) having a hard time coming up with a way that safely lets me :P perhaps if i use a mounted list and use fear from the top hatch of a rhino? :) how are you using the powers to full effect m8?

 

im not sure on the fiery baal. generally if something survives the first flaming theres a big chance your baal will get toast man :P (specialy with my luck... a lowly grot would be able to blow it up...)

[ancient god]

Well the flame Baal could work nicely in conjunction with other squads that start the game right up front. A Baal within 2" of enemy squads might take some fire off the Furioso and the other way around, making them both more stable choices. I plan on trying three drop pods once I have enough troops to play 2000 pts. Get two in the opponent's face in turn one, Scout the Baal(s) and maybe even the Stormraven to have enough squads in melee range after turn one to make the whole speartip isolation point moot.

If there's enough points for beacons, it also makes my drop troops that much more lethal as I can drop right into the tightest spots.

 

My Librarian has so far only run with my single assault squad and other than that I only field a max of one more footslogging squad. So Shield doesn't seem necessary and I don't need Sword (I instead rely on melta, powerfists and the Vindicator for high S), so there's always room for Fear. It pays for itself as long as the enemy isn't fully meched or fearless. Other than that, I use my Libby to counter Eldar and Nid spells. Unleash Rage so far hasn't come up much, the squad either run into nothing and dies or takes on stuff where UR isn't necessary. I'm sure I'll hit a squad where I need it once I get to play Marines or some of the other races.

 

Another thing to consider when using Fear instead of Shield is that, by making a squad fall back, you also take a load off your attacking units as that squad can't shoot and move as effectively while it's retreating. And it might just flee off the board, happens to my opponents all the time when they guard objectives like 6" from the edge or hold back shooty units. One failed check on -2 and they might be off.

[ancient god]

Got another seven Sternguard in the works now. That is to say, I'm prepping them for spraying tonight, some more bits to glue where they're tacked on now and some parts to clean up.

 

I need to find another combimelta so that I can field four of those and find a pose for the final regular bolter veteran and I think I might paint those before I go for the Sanguinary Guard.

 

Will take some unpainted pictures tonight to show the conversions, or rather the parts swaps.

[tagsta]

Got another seven Sternguard in the works now. That is to say, I'm prepping them for spraying tonight, some more bits to glue where they're tacked on now and some parts to clean up.

 

I need to find another combimelta so that I can field four of those and find a pose for the final regular bolter veteran and I think I might paint those before I go for the Sanguinary Guard.

 

Will take some unpainted pictures tonight to show the conversions, or rather the parts swaps.

"Like" Button

[Ebsolom]

First up, thank's for the Batrep. Kind of felt sorry for the Tau ;) they've always been succeptable to a solid pasting in CC, more so now with thr new dex :) .

Libbys are a good option unless you play against Eldar, those Runes of Warding are a bitch.

 

As for the 4th combi melta, why not convert one. The prices they go for on Ebay are a little OTT and the bits stores are always out of stock. Looking forward to the Sternguard pics ;)

[ellis_esquire]

Hi AncientGod.

 

Just caught this post after being back into the hobby nearly a year like yourself and have been revitalising my DA army too.

 

Must say If i was BA id paint my models (or like to) like you! Congrats on a nicely developing army and some great paintwork.

 

One question, do you use a little red (or derivative) on your faces? They have a very earthy tone!

 

Wonderful stuff - consider me your new no.1 Dark Angel fan!

[ancient god]

tagsta, yeah I thought you might. There's another MkIV marine in there too, just for you mate. :drool:

 

Ebsolom, I felt for him too that game. Neither one of us rolled particularly well or badly but my army comp was too much for his Tau.

 

I'm considering converting a combimelta, yes. I'll ask some of the guys at the store first, though. One of them is bound to have one to spare.

 

ellis, thanks mate, glad you like them. :) I've used a range of different colours for my BA's skin tones so far. If you take a look at my Sanguinary Priest; that's VMC Old Rose with ...something thrown in for shading, it might have been an Ogryn Flesh wash, or simply some dark brown wash. And highlighted mixing in VMC Basic Skin Tone. This gave a rather vibrant, reddish skin tone. A Northern European look you could say.

The Death Company marine is Tallarn Flesh, Ogryn Flesh wash, then built up with Tallarn Flesh and lots of VMC Basic Skin Tone, up to pure Skin Tone, and finally washed and blended with VMC Prussian Blue on the forehead and eyes. The result is rather bleak because of lots of thin Basic Skin Tone layers, with a darkened eye region.

 

Regular skin for say my Vanguard sergeant is similar to what I did on the DC guy: Tallarn Flesh washed with Ogryn Flesh, built up through Tallarn up to almost pure Basic Skin Tone. Much less Basic Skin Tone than on the DC though. This gives you the average skin tone you can see on most of my models.

 

So not very much red used, although I occasionally wash the eyes with some dark brown, purple, dark blue and/or dark grey before I paint the actual eyes. A couple of slight nuances in a face always makes them look more natural than when it's just one tone all the way.

 

Just had a look into your blog by the way, lovely models! <_<

 

Edit: shpelling...

[ancient god]

Finally got around to paint a little and finished another Sternguard veteran just now. ;)

 

That means it's time for another go in AG's photo quality roulette! This time: garish and quite sharp. I can live with that, at least you can see the detail.

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y254/ancientgod/Blood%20Angels/IMG_1274.jpg

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y254/ancientgod/Blood%20Angels/IMG_1282.jpg

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y254/ancientgod/Blood%20Angels/IMG_1276.jpg

 

I also tweaked the first Sternguard marine's heraldic knee pad a little as I thought it looked a little too busy.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y254/ancientgod/Blood%20Angels/IMG_1279.jpg

 

 

...man those pics are well saturated. :mellow:

 

Anyway, hope you like the new guy! The rest of the squad won't be running, just these two.

[Malatox]

D:....

Why has god cursed me with these hands and nit gifted me with your skilled ones?!

I love your minis man :D!

Malatox

[Blindhamster]

AG, just wanted to say that your old Blood Angels were my favourite Blood Angels on these forums, they were stylish, and extremely well executed...

 

These however...

 

Have topped them, so much so that I made the decision to use your choice in colours for painting the red, the paints are in the post :D

 

The Sternguard look awesome, the use of little extras to 'bling' them up without overdoing it is lovely.

 

Your faces have come on a long way, and I thought they were awesome before.

 

I'd love to get a good shot of the DC bare head, the reflections (white dots on iris I assume?) intrigues me :D

[Demoulius]

loving the heraldry on their kneepads m8 :D

 

ps. has your package arrived yet? :D