The Albigensian Crusade

[Honda]

 

Also, are you using basic electrical copper-wire as cord on the Terminator's tabards?

 

As a matter of fact, I did exactly that.

 

I needed "something" and had originally planned on use some chain, but when I checked out my chain inventory, I didn't have enough to do the whole squad. Not wanting some with chain and others with something else, I went with the electrical wire. As a modeling material, it seems to have worked out pretty well. I measured out the length I needed, wrapped it around the torso where I left a belt line, then twisted the ends with needle nose pliers until the belt was very snug against the tabard. Then I just bent the cord ends to look like they were moving in the same direction as the tabard. Surprisingly easy.

 

The next day I was at a craft store and found a nice bag of chain in the jewelry section which should tide me over for awhile. It doesn't have the black finish that Krikey recommends, but it was 180 cm and only $2.99. I suspect my next squad will have a fair bit of chain evident.

 

I'm glad you (Panzer and Kierdale) liked the batrep. It was one of those days where my fingers were just flying everywhere and I wasn't really sure what was going to come out.

 

Cheers,

[Honda]

Well then, how about a little mood music?

http://youtu.be/GMk208Op1Jc

Okey dokey, I've finally finished my Sword Brethren Assault squad. I'm fairly happy with how they
turned out as they are close to how I visualized them. Sometimes that's the best you can do. So, not
a bad effort and I feel like I advanced my GS skills just a tad.

The convention with these guys is that a brother with a shield, regardless of the side arm, represents
a Thunder hammer and a Storm Shield. Everything else represents lightning claws. I think it was Arthanor
who claimed the "mob" effect in using mixed weapons and I do have to say that I like the effect as well.

So here we go...

Some will note the bronze facings on the above pair of lightning claws and that they have "wolf" words on them. I decided to embellish this set a bit and have

them represent a gift from our Wolf brothers for a yet to be described heroic action where a Wolf Guard's life was saved by this brother.

The above shield has half Templar and half "something else" as a device. For those who were there, this is the crusade badge for the Penance Crusade, to atone for our moment of weakness and shame in ETL 2.

The flat sealer is drying on these guys as I type. When that is done, I'll put some static grass on the bases to further tie them into my other units. So

I think that's it for now.

I also have Episode 4 of Witch Wars to post up, so expect that in a couple of days.

Cheers,

[Honda]

Missed one...

[Marshal Reinhard]

This is a very nice looking squad. Like how uniform they look despite all the different weapons. That said, we're missing a group shot

 

So wait, the guys who just have a halberd (no shield) counts as wielding lightning claws? That's the only one i find "iffy" if so...

 

or are the wrist guards shields?

[Honda]

 

So wait, the guys who just have a halberd (no shield) counts as wielding lightning claws? That's the only one i find "iffy" if so...

 

Halberds are intended to represent lightning claws. The big shield wielding brothers should stand out from the others enough that I'm hoping that won't be confusing. In general, I don't do tournaments, so it's just our local group that needs to keep that in mind. I'll also be reminding them in each assault.

 

Group picture...Ok, I think I can swing that.

 

Cheers,

[greggles]

I think as long as you indicate that the shielded models are the TH/SS guys, nobody will ever have a problem.  Besides they look cool :).  Rule of cool still conquers all.

[Andhil]

The Halberd/Shield combo looks sick. Great work on the heraldry on those shields too. That ain't easy to do. As per usual, great work, Honda!

[Kierdale]

Very nice work.

Episode 4 of Witch Wars??!

Can't wait! :D

[Honda]

Welcome to Witch Wars for our fourth episode where
we investigate the dark, underhanded, and heretical goings on in the underworld
of witches, along with those heroes who hunt them down and bring them to justice.

Jefe and I got together for what appears to be a long
running batch of battles between the Armies of Faith and the dark Wardian
descendents of what once was a noble endeavor.

As usual, this is a friendly game (2000 pts) with us just
trying stuff just to see how it works and whether we like it. In this case Jefe
added a strike squad to his mob of miscreants to his Dreadknight, Draigo + 4
Paladins, a ten man squad of Purifiers, his Psychic Boys Choir, Coteaz + lots
of guns, and his favorite figure in a tight black body glove, Callie the
Callidus.

In my case, I decided to shake things up a bit. I took
two Ironclads with chainfists and two heavy flamers, another dreadnought with
TL-Lascannon, DCCW + Hflamer, and two ten man "Archer" crusader
squads all in drop pods, my usual Master of Sanctity (Chapter Master, termie,
SS, Burning Blade) attached to a CC Crusader squad (Sword Brethren had SS/Power
sword), two Storm Ravens, and two Typhoon Land speeders.

So a lot of new toys for me, but in hindsight, I was
missing some synergies that would become more obvious later.

Oops! Sorry about that!

I rolled low, so Jefe "allowed" me to go first.
I would have preferred to go second, given all the drop pods I had, but that
happens sometimes. My intention was to get into the witches backfield and start
mucking things up on the expectation that my reinforcements would follow up and
give me the push I needed to complete the job. Also, I am painfully aware of
the fact that I really don't have a solution for Draigo and crew unless I can
get my dreads in CC with him. I was concerned about that.

So, off to the races we go...

Turn 1 - BOOM!!! All the dread drop pods land in the
witch backfield. However, I was to learn that Coteaz is a very nasty character
when fitted with a lot of cheap gun dudes in his retinue. In this case, I think
he had at least one Multi-melta, three melta guns, some hotshot lasguns and
maybe something else. Very bad.

Jefe also had the Boys Choir there to drop a nasty pie
plate on my stuff. Because the Boys Choir is the witchiest of the witches, I sort of pick on them.
Taking them out of the game always gives me a warm feeling of accomplishment
regardless of the other circumstances going on.

<The sound of their pitiful voices as they succumb to the flames of our holy wrath...er, apologies, I got a little carried away.>

Unfortunately, there was a Counter BOOM, in the form of
the Coteaz Effect. First off, Jefe attempted to use the Boys Choir, but I
rolled a '5' on my DtW roll. He was excited because for once, he was going to
get to use the full strength template.

Then I said, "Uh, I rolled a 5". He looked at
me and said, "Right, Deny the Witch is a 6", which I responded,
"Um, Adamantium Will makes it a 5".

Imagine a witch with a sad face.

Unfortunately, Coteaz and crew said, "Uh yeah, we
got this" and proceeded to blow up a drop pod (First Blood), immobilize two
Ironclads. After seeing the Coteaz Effect, the other Ironclad decided to disembark
in LOS blocking terrain. Not a good start. In my shooting phase, I was able to
immobilize the Boys Choir chimera, but that was about it.

The witches, however, were not done. In their turn they
destroyed an Ironclad and then began to press their advantage with the
Dreadknight. Things were not looking good for the Faithful.

Turn 2 - Started off with me getting one Storm Raven, but
not the one with the MoS. I also got one of the Archer squads in and dropped it
near an objective. I shuffled a few things around to get better LOS, moved my
remaining Ironclad back because the Dreadknight was coming after him. There
wasn't going to be a lot I could do about that except stick in terrain and
force him to assault me as I didn't have enough movement to ensure that I'd get
a charge off. I didn't have a lot of hope for him.

In shooting, I wanted to get rid of Draigo's LR so he
couldn't fly all over the table and I was able to knock down his hull points
some, but I didn't get any kill shots. I also focused some S8 shots on taking
out the Boys Choir chimera so I could get them out in the open. I was
successful at that, as well as taking out Coteaz's chimera. Still I felt I was
on the back foot, trying to get something going.

In the witch's turn the Dreadknight got into CC with my
Ironclad and I could see how this was going to go, i.e. "not well" to
quote Mr. Bond. Also, I lost a Typhoon to the LRs Heavy Bolter, which because
of the scenario, got the witches another VP. Sigh...

Turn 3 - I got a the other SR and the other Archer squad.
The Archer squad dropped on another objective. Although I had been beating on
Coteaz, he still had plenty of guns and I didn't need him to suddenly get
lucky. I wiffed with my attacks on the Dreadknight, only putting one or two on
him and in the second round he tanked me. I did eliminate the Boys Choir with
some frag missiles from a Typhoon and got the LR down to one HP and killed the
rhino carrying the Strike squad, who moved into terrain.

Coteaz's Multi-melta gunner must of had some wiring
problems, because after his first successful shot, he never hit anything
again...which was a good thing. However, his melta guns and hotshot lasguns
were doing just fine. The Purifiers attempted to assault my immobilized dread,
but kept wiffing.

The strike squad started heading over to one of my Archer squads
holding an objective. I thought this would be interesting and it seemed a bit
like Faramir's cavalry charge into Osgileath, as I had 8 bolters, one plasma
gun, and a lascannon sitting in a building, locked and loaded. That squad also
had a Powerfist.

Unfortunately, the other Archer squad got the attention
of Callie. She dropped in and cut the
squad down by half before they even knew what was happening, including taking
out the powerfist. Then she assaulted. However, zeal is a weapon as well. While
she inflicted two kills in the assault, the return blows landed three on her
and she failed two of her Inv saves and died. We were both sort of shocked to
see that, though I was sort of "happy" shocked.

Unfortunately, the Dreadknight was heading over there to
clean up. Oh, left out that the DK had popped on over to a Typhoon and knocked
it out of the sky as I didn't move it to maximize its firepower. Also, Draigo's
LR killed the empty Storm Raven.

Turn 4 - As we were running out of time, we agreed that
this would be the last turn. The witches held a lot of victory points, so this
turn would be more about how many I could hold onto/contest and see how close
the fight would be.

A hovering Storm Raven and Dread, first immobilized, then blew
Draigo's LR. Pistols out, the Knight squad actually put a wound on Draigo and
one on a Paladin. Hah, take that!

The Storm Raven dropped off the MoS and
Knight squad to surround the high point objective. I wanted the SR to interject
itself between my knight squad and Draigo and crew. In the mean time, the MoS
was out in front ready to challenge Draigo. Everyone else pretty much stayed
put.

The Archer squad firing on Faramir's Strike squad took
down two. Not bad.

I decide to hold the MoS/Knight squad and not assault
Draigo. I want him to force me off the objective, even though he'll contest it.
Call me stubborn.

At this point, we started looking at how the witches
could maximize their points grab, while still knocking me off objectives. The
Purifiers decide to move off the Dread combat and go for an objective. Because
of the difficult terrain, and a bad roll, they miss it by an inch. I try to
keep in the remorse I am feeling. The Faramir squad charges into my Archer
squad and my Opportunity fire takes out another one. In hand to hand, they kill
two and I kill them. Not bad, that leaves me with an objective.

The Dreadknight charges into the other Archer squad and
wipes me. He only had one wound left on him and I was hoping for some late game
heroics from them, but that didn't happen.

So that left us with the big scrum in the middle.

The Paladins and Draigo shoot and I make all my saves.
They charge in. I force Draigo to challenge my MoS. My opportunity fire takes
out a thunder hammer paladin. The Paladin halberds take out two knights. We put
back two wounds, but they save them.

Then the moment I've been wondering about.

I'm not sure, but I think we strike simultaneously. Draigo puts two wounds on my MoS, but he
saves both. I put three wounds on Draigo, he takes LOS one to a paladin, who
fails his save, then takes the remaining two, only saving one. So Draigo now
has two wounds.

I think if we were going to play this out another turn,
I'd get Draigo, but the rest of the paladins would take out the knight squad.
Eventually, they'd turn on the MoS and that could go either way, but would be a tough fight for the MoS.

It certainly would have been interesting I am sure.

We totaled up everything and the witches pulled off a
solid 6-4 win. I say solid because they were going to be able to get more VP's
next turn and I would struggle to hold on to what I had.

Great game Jefe even if it was a sad day for the Armies of Faith. I'm definitely looking forward to Episode V.

Next up, something rather interesting...

Final Question: What is the ZOC of a hovering flyer? Is it the base or the model? We played it the base, which I think is right, but would prefer some clarification.

Cheers,

[Andhil]

Huh, I thought you couldn't LoS in a Challenge?

 

Anyway, yeah I'd count the ZOC of a hovering flyer from the base. When in doubt, view the skimmer rules, coz that's what it counts as.

 

A fine battle one again, Brother Honda. Well fought.

[Castellan Cato]

There was another thread on here recently that pointed out that you can challenge a dreadknight.  Might have been able to save your archer squad if you have a sword brother and hes still laive.  Also lets you smite the witch with Rending.

[Honda]

 

Huh, I thought you couldn't LoS in a Challenge?

 

Oh, you're probably right...and because this is all me and oral tradition and all that, we may or may not have actually done the LOS. You know, never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Or a bad one.

 

Regarding the hover thing, that's how we played it (like a skimmer, wait...is that the title of an old Madonna song?), but I just wanted to verify.

 

 

There was another thread on here recently that pointed out that you

can challenge a dreadknight.  Might have been able to save your archer

squad if you have a sword brother and hes still laive.  Also lets you

smite the witch with Rending.

 

I do recall that post. I didn't have a SB in the squad, but I have certainly filed that trick for later. I could see it being very useful in the future.

 

Cheers,

[Honda]

Merry Christmas Brothers!

Peace and Good tidings for all, wherever you may be.

And to keep this within our posting rules, know that in Texas, even the rabbits wear power armor.

[The_Chaplain]

Merry Xmas to you too Honda! Hope master of sanctity klaus brings you something nice this year.

[Honda]

<Andhil smiles, thus making everything right in the world>

So this lot got started a long while back...in fact, in preparation for when the release of the GK codex was going to come out. At the time, I was reading a lot of HH novels, was really liking "The First Heretic" and the Custodes. I knew that everyone and their cousins were going to be pouring out "silver" armies, so I was going to go "gold" and have my cake and eat it too!

Then the codex came out and I read the whole thing cover to cover. While appreciating some of the teases, I really grew to dislike what the fluff re-writes had done to the GK, which is changing them from a more puritan force, to something that is now dangerously "radical". I didn't like that at all, so that project languished, even though I got a bunch of minis to support my Custodes. I even painted up three Storm Ravens in gold whilst recovering from rotator cuff surgery (*hack, *spit, LPC 2011), but never finished the army. That's not like me at all, not finishing something that I've started.

So, the figs sat under my bed in a container, the Storm Ravens have acquired a Templar livery (smartest thing I've ever done), the Contemptor now features black and white, and all is well in the world...except for these 15 guys.

Now, the original intent of my crusade was to be a part of the Apostasy Wars. That effort always captured my imagination and the idea of Sisters as allies, seemed like a cool addition to my existing forces. At some point I figured that "Hey, Custodes are in the Palace, maybe they could be a part of my crusade as well". So...with all my other challenges and what not done, I decided to finish these guys up.

In regular games (not in a GW store), I'll use them as terminators, either regular or assault. I have 15 of them and don't know that I'll ever paint anymore as the gold I used isn't available from GW anymore, though the Gehenna Gold is pretty close. We'll see.

The original idea was to have three squads of five, each with a Brotherhood Banner arriving in a Storm Raven. So, instead what I have will be either that or some combination of 1 x 10 or 2 x 7 in games, most likely for Apocalypse. They have a land raider that I did a while back, that was a ebay reclamation project and that turned out Ok, so they have a couple of ways of getting on the table.

Heavy weapons - I'll either use them has heavy flamers (were going to be incinerators), or counts as assault cannons. For the most part, these guys will never walk across the table, so the short ranged assault abilities will support their deployment rather well.

Basically, I made this guy me, though without the glasses. We both have the same Bruce Willis hair cut and I like the fact that he has some attitude.

This was my attempt at a twin bolter, per HH era Storm Bolter equivalents. Most of the other "storm bolters" were made from one half of the pintel storm bolter that comes with vehicle kits with a few bits of plasticard used to cover holes.

These will become standard bearers, once I've built the standards. I'm going to attempt to build something that looks like Roman Legion standards and will pop off as needed for storage.

Now I just have to seal them.

Happy New Year everyone!

[Krikey]

I like the Custodes. Scibor models, I'm guessing? I've steered away from them, but those are dead-on, I think.

 

~K

[Honda]

Yes, Scibor models and they are very nice. The thing I really liked about them is their size. They are definitely going to intimidate standard astartes (per some of the HH novels).

 

The only downside is that you can't really modify the legs in anyway without great effort. On the other hand, they do have a number of poses that can give you some variety. I think they are up to six or seven bodies now. Very crisp molding as well, with no flash in evidence.

 

The shoulder pads were a little more interesting, though. Not bad, just in the clean up for the resin channels.

[Andhil]

Nice looking Custodes there Honda! Keep us posted on them Banners. Roman style is cool.

 

And a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you too.

[Honda]

Finally, this guy is finished. Some of you will remember him from ETL2, an eBay reclamation project, needing a bit of repair, then just as I was getting going, the base coats of paint started coming off in my hands because the primer coat just wouldn't take. So he sat in Simple Green for a very long time. Then I started over. It was worth it though as I've always wanted to play around with an Ares.

After I finished with the painting and weathering, I decided to put some powders on him to dirty him up. Also, I wanted him to be really dirty because initially, I think that's how I'll feel when I put him on the table. I'll get over it though because, no pity, no remorse, and no fear.

Being a Templar means never having to say you're sorry for fielding superior firepower.

I still have to name him, so his scroll work isn't done yet as I'm waiting until after I seal him.

Early indications you're going to have a bad day...

...and the rest of the shots.

Happy New Year Brothers!

[CastellanDeMolay]

"Boom Box" - I like it. 

The Heavy Flamers going through the headlight flaps on the Siege Shield is a nice touch. 

[The_Chaplain]

Now that is how you start the new year with a bang!   That ares looks fantastic Honda! 

[Honda]

Thank you all and glad to see we all made it. ;)

 

 

The Heavy Flamers going through the headlight flaps on the Siege Shield is a nice touch.

 

I can't take any credit for the modeling. I think the author's solution for the heavy flamers is unique, practical, and a very interesting style change.

 

Some of the modeling looks like he/she had a box of bits and was putting a puzzle together, but in the end, it definitely works. The idea of putting an AR 14 all around + Demolisher cannon on the table warms the cockles of my Puritan heart. Heretics...not so much.

 

Looking forward to my next game.

 

ONWARDS!

[The Yak]

A Mighty Beast if ever there was one. Love the sponsons on the front rather than the side, looks very scary indeed.

 

Great work as always mate.

[Marshal Reinhard]

Quite like it. The placement of sponsons is cool especially because we get a sponsonless profile of the tank which is pretty refreshing.

 

Does the tank have troop carrying options? Seeing as it has 4 side doors now? Even if it doesn't it's still a beastly little thing

[Honda]

I'll confirm this, but I'm pretty certain that the transport capacity has been sacrificed in order to get the demolisher cannon. It's no Achilles, though they cost the same.