The Albigensian Crusade

[Marshal Reinhard]

Well that's a shame I guess, but it makes sense. In any event that's a delicious tank either way

[Krikey]

Beautiful Ares, Honda!

 

~K

[Honda]

First a little mood music...

...and a little explanation. So these are "killers", but more appropriately they are "monster" killers.

First off are my two Land Raider Terminus, appropriately named:

Draconis Peremptor - Dragon Slayer

Ferae Peremptor- Beast Killer

Yes, I am using Peremptor two different ways, but according to the latin help I got, both are appropriate usage.

I've always wanted two LRTs. Why? Because the both of them are 600 pts. I will stack those 600 pts against any other equivalent "beast", be it a Stompa, Warhound, whatever and I think I come out ahead. That's 10 BS4 Lascannon shots, 6 of which are twin-linked. Yes, I'll do that all day long. Anyway, I'm finally getting around to adding these to my armory.

The next addition has to do with cool factor and bugs, but mostly cool factor. I've always loved Whirlwinds. I wish we could take a squadron of them like in the Siege list. I do foresee running a siege list for fun as the Crusaders also used sieges and we can certainly bring some pain for that list. Plus, the idea of Templar Breacher squads makes me giggle.

Anyway, these guys are all ready for base coating and I'm going to try to get that done before the front comes in.

Cheers,

[Marshal Reinhard]

You're really going to town with those Land Raiders, brother. While I'm not a particular fan of the current pattern myself, that won't make a lick of difference if you make them even half the qualty of that awesome Ares.

 

3 land raiders in short order, what will the total number be after these two? Don't think I've ever bothered you for a head count

[Andhil]

Oh, boy, you just keep getting us stuff to look forward to, don't you?

 

Now, chain yourself to your modelling equipment, and finish this stuff Templar-style! (Head-on, as fast as possible, with little regard for casualties.--> These should serve to motivate you to work faster, if anything!)

[Marshal_Roujakis]

Tried modelling the Terminus Ultra Myself... now you have to consider NOT following the normal STC pattern for the Terminus, the dang Ultramarines submitted a design where the rear Twin-Linked Lascannon Turrets cannot point forward. You might want to "Fix it up" a bit so that all Cannons could point forward and send those "Kaiju's" back to the rift where they belong ;)

[Honda]

Tried modelling the Terminus Ultra Myself... now you have to consider

NOT following the normal STC pattern for the Terminus, the dang

Ultramarines submitted a design where the rear Twin-Linked Lascannon

Turrets cannot point forward.

See, there you go getting all logical and everything, thinking it's supposed to all make sense. Dude, that's a rookie mistake.

This is not engineering. This is 40K. It is what it is, and what it is isn't what it ought to be, cause that would make a lot of sense and then the Internet would collapse because 27% of all forums wouldn't have anything to talk about, thereby inducing the end of civilization as we know it.

Or something.

Oddly, I'm one of those that doesn't mind the non-functional logic of LRT. I sort of wonder if somebody during a session at Bugman's dared Ward to put 8 lascannons on a Land raider and that's how the Terminus Ultra* came to be.

@Andhil: I am properly motivated and I did get the base coat on in time, so airbrushing could proceed as early as tomorrow. Also, I should mention that most of this stuff I've been working on recently has been in my backlog, most of it purchased quite a while ago (like Apoc 1st edition).

3 land raiders in short order, what will the total number be after

these two? Don't think I've ever bothered you for a head count

Hmm...I believe once the LRTs are done, that I'll be at an even dozen. I've got one more LRC to build, though I'm holding off on that as it might end up going 30K. I also have two more Whirlwinds, one Vindicator, about 3-4 Rhino/Razorbacks, and a Contemptor left. Ideally, I'd like to get a couple Stalkers, an Achilles, and I would love, love, love to get my hands on a Fire Raptor. But we'll just have to see.

And that's if I don't let my mind wander on some of the other vehicle projects I'd like to do...like...

i know, you're probably wondering what that is. In Epic, there used to be something called a Space Marine Landing Craft. It's huge. It can hold either 4 LRs or 6 Rhino chassis and I think double a Thunderhawk in troops. It's a beast. Scaled up to 40K, it would be on the order of 3.5 - 4.0 FEET long. I would love to build that. I have no idea where I'd put it after I was done and it would take a good long while to make, but I would love to take on that project.

So, I have plenty of things to keep me occupied, and that's without thinking of anything new.

Right now, my biggest problem is that I have more vehicles than boots and I do need to get a couple more crusader squads built, plus my all chappie Vanguard Vet squad. Also, I'd like to make my own Grimaldus and something with that Gabriel Seth figure.

I think I've finally come to understand what the "Eternal" part means in Eternal Crusade.

Cheers,

[Marshal_Roujakis]

Is it possible that what you meant was a Stormbird the equivalent of the Thunderhawk back in the days before the HH?

 

Can't wait to see that!

 

The models in the picture btw are epic models of old Dreadnoughts, the tiny purple in the center are Space Marines and if you look at the front landing ramp that is a rhino.

 

 

 

Tried modelling the Terminus Ultra Myself... now you have to consider
NOT following the normal STC pattern for the Terminus, the dang
Ultramarines submitted a design where the rear Twin-Linked Lascannon
Turrets cannot point forward.

 
See, there you go getting all logical and everything, thinking it's supposed to all make sense. Dude, that's a rookie mistake.
 
This is not engineering. This is 40K. It is what it is, and what it is isn't what it ought to be, cause that would make a lot of sense and then the Internet would collapse because 27% of all forums wouldn't have anything to talk about, thereby inducing the end of civilization as we know it.
 
Or something.
 
Oddly, I'm one of those that doesn't mind the non-functional logic of LRT. I sort of wonder if somebody during a session at Bugman's dared Ward to put 8 lascannons on a Land raider and that's how the Terminus Ultra* came to be.

 

I don't really mind it either, but once you use it in a game some people "don't allow" firing the rear guns at front targets, since "you cannot get the barrel to line up on the target."

 

I hate that!

 

therefore I designed mt LRT after this: Land Raider Terminus - Annihilator although mine's not finished since I'm trying to get my entire 100 Sword Brethrens done... and still waiting on my New Year Contemptor... :P

[Honda]

 

Is it possible that what you meant was a Stormbird the equivalent of the Thunderhawk back in the days before the HH?

 

Can't wait to see that!

 

The models in the picture btw are epic models of old Dreadnoughts,

the tiny purple in the center are Space Marines and if you look at the

front landing ramp that is a rhino.

 

That pic made me smile. I still have that old WD.

 

But to answer your question, no it's not a Stormbird. It's a different type of vehicle.

 

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Space_Marine_Landing_Craft#.UtFkExGA2P8

 

 

 

I don't really mind it either, but once you use it in a game some

people "don't allow" firing the rear guns at front targets, since "you

cannot get the barrel to line up on the target."

 

I hate that!

 

therefore I designed mt LRT after this: Land Raider Terminus - Annihilator

 

The forward firing thing wouldn't be an issue for me, at least locally. I will say that the image of that LRT you posted is a very interesting design. I've got a spare Pred turret somewhere, I'll have to do a mock up and see if I like the profile. The version you posted is a sweet looking vehicle, that is for sure.

 

Cheers,

[Honda]

Ok, just a quick update to reassure Andhil that things are progressing in a proper Templar fashion. For some reason my compressor was just giving me fits, so this took a bit longer than expected.

Anyway, now that all the broad brush work is done, it's down to post paint construction and detailing.

Cheers,

[Andhil]

That's nice.

 

Ohhhh! Seeing all those Lascannons in a row makes my inner Guardman giggle uncontrollably!

 

Whirlwinds are sweet. I really like the look of that model, but I don't really feel the need to buy one.

 

As always I look forward to seeing your progress. As much as the average child looks forward to Christmas!

[Honda]

...and we're back!

So here's my answer to other armies "monsters"...

Beast Killer

Dragon Slayer

Whirlwinds for some indirect, toast you where you stand, Emperor's wrath

Originally I was going to begin a modeling exercise oriented around Badab and the Carcharadons for the upcoming Tale of Texas Gamers, but now it looks like I will be representing the Templars. So...

HOOAH!!! HOLY CROSSES FOR THE WIN!

Also, I've been looking at the Vanguard Siege list as an alternate way of playing my Templars so I've got some ideas along those lines and we'll see how those pan out.

ONWARDS!!!

[Urkh]

You must truly be the dark knight, because when i saw that land raider, all i could think was "HOLY LASCANNONS, BATMAN!"

[The_Chaplain]

 

Also, I've been looking at the Vanguard Siege list as an alternate way of playing my Templars so I've got some ideas along those lines and we'll see how those pan out.

 

Great minds think alike I guess, I've just been looking at the siege vanguard rule set and coming up with ideas for an allied detachment using their rules. 

 

Your tanks are looking great as always Honda!

[Honda]

@Urkh: You owe me for a new keyboard. :)

 

Now that the Terminusesez are together, I can look back and laugh at all the lascannons. Earlier in the exercise, it wasn't so funny. I am looking forward to being able to plop them down in a game and see what 10 lascannons (6 twin-linked) can do in a game.

 

Also, after posting the original pics, I realized that I hadn't done the chipping and weathering powders, so I'm fixing that right now and will post updated pics later.

 

Now back to the table!

 

Cheers,

[Honda]

Quick hit here.

The fieldification of the monsters is complete and their sealer (Testors Lustreless) is drying...which may take a while as it's still cool outside. However, this is how they ended up.

One other observation. Now that the LR Terminusizez are finished, when I look at the spread of lascannons, they seem to look more like a spider with its legs stretched out. Sort of very sinister.

I like that. :)

Now, if all goes according to plan, Witch Wars Episode V should take place tomorrow. I will be fielding the Vanguard Siege list just to shake things up.

Cheers,

[The Yak]

Deer Mista Onda

 

Is der any chantz we cud av a piktuur ov all yur wunderful Land Raidaz toogefer as dey is da best

 

Fanks

 

Da Yak

[Marshal Reinhard]

I agree, an image of the collective force of your crusades' armored might surely must be in order now that you have made these lovely additions.

[Kierdale]

Excellent work, and such nice details! The dirt, staining (particularly on the WW launchers), the scribblescript, and those long, flowing purity seals!

[Honda]

Soooo, Jefe and I got together for Episode V of Witch
Wars last Sunday. Little did I know that we'd both be bringing new lists. For
myself, I've been intrigued by the Vanguard Siege List in IA10, so I thought
I'd put something together that would keep me amused throughout a game. We were
playing at 2500 points.

I took:

1 x Siege Master, with a Storm Shield

3 x 10 man Assault squads (as troops), one squad had
combat shields and chainswords, one squad had BP/chainswords, 2 x meltas, and a
Vet Sgt with a powerfist, and the third squad had BP/chainswords, 2 x flamers.

1 x 5 man Assault terminator squad, TH/SS

1 x squadron of three Vindicators, Siege shield (well, it is a "siege" list after all)

1 x Land raider Redeemer (dedicated transport)

1 x Land raider Crusader (dedicated transport)

1 x Hunter (the missile AA tank)

2 x Caestus Assault Rams

The termies were in one Caestus and the assault squad with combat shields was in the other. The
Siege Master joined with the Melta+Pfist in the LRC. I never ended up using the
Pfist as I was so new to the list, it had slipped my mind that it was there. More on that later.

I do have to say that there are some amazing modeling opportunities with this list. My head is just flying with ideas.

Jefe, on the other hand, took the PETA Insurrectionist Witches list, dropping his psychic Boys Choir for several animal packs carrying
glowy finger bulbs and atomic bananas. Considering the plethora of AT firepower Jefe had, I was a tad concerned for all my vehicles.

Jefe took:

1 x Draigo and a 5 man Paladin squad. These were loading into Jefe's new Storm Raven,
which was an awesome conversion between a Storm Raven, the Chapter House extension kit and a Valkyrie. Very, very cool
looking

1 x Jefe's favorite assassin, Callie the Callidus

1 x 5 man Grey Knight squad, the Justicar had a daemon hammer, in a Land raider

1 x 10 man Purifier squad with glowy pig stickers. I think one guy had a hammer, in a Land raider Crusader

3 x 5 man Inquisitor PETA animal rescue projects (i.e. space monkeys), loaded in 2 rhinos and one chimera. One of the Inquisitor
witches was my favorite (NOT!) Coteaz.

1 x Dreadknight, with glowy pig sticker re-roll knife and a "whoosh" gun (i.e. psilencer)

As this was supposed to be a siege of sorts, we used a lot of terrain and I was figuring that I would need to crash through some of it to get to my
objective...

...and I do need to mention this. The Vanguard Siege list
has a lot of toys in it. It is very strong. However, "with great power,
comes great responsibility". Unlike other lists, the Vanguard Siege comes with a special
objective. As the attacker, you have to take that objective in order to win,
otherwise the best you can do is a draw...or completely annihilate your
opponent.

Piece of cake. <rolls eyes>

And the race was on. In reading some of the design notes
for the Siege list, it's clear that this is not
the list for people who like to mince around on the table. You have to
get in there and get cracking. It's important to take away units from the
opponent as soon as possible because if you don't get to that objective, you
are an "also ran". If you allow the opponent to castle up against
you, you may find yourself struggling to
breakthrough to get the objective.

Turn 1

I ended up going first and Jefe declined to seize. As you
can see, there is something inspiring about seeing three vindicators lined up
shoulder to shoulder, and with that, we moved forward to take on the animal
witches.

Now something that I didn't pay attention to initially,
was my Vindi squadron. Since I put them all together, when it came to targeting, I actually hampered myself
a bit. I really should have run them as 2/1 vs. all three in one slot. I had
the extra Heavy slots to use and that ended up costing me one turn of no fire with
the rightmost vindi because of range to targets on the left of the squadron.
Live and learn. I didn't do that much damage, one hit on the witch LRC that
took out the right side sponson, everything else was out of range.

The witches...these witches in particular HATE Adamantium
Will. I kid you not, I'd be surprised if Jefe had a 25% success rate on his
witch rolls. For most of the game, AW was blowing away Prescient and Hammerhand
rolls like I knew what I was doing. We were both pretty surprised about this.
Of course, I was the happy kind of surprised, Jefe...not so much.

In any case, he fired a ton of stuff my way and I just
want to get this out there now. Monkeys are not nice people. Thankfully, they
weren't great shots either, but that's neither here nor there. I did lose a
Vindicator though. Also, the Dreadknight jumped out of the ruins and attempted
to charge my Redeemer.

However, in the immortal words of Maxwell Smart, the
Dreadknight "missed it by that much".

My Redeemer lives.

Turn 2

I cue up some Wagner and lo and behold, both the Caestus
come on. I'm not being subtle at all
about my plan. I'm going up my left side and I intend to blow away anything
that gets in my way. That's what this list does to you. It turns you into some
sort of carnage inducing beast, determined to wreak as much havoc as possible.
I sort of enjoyed how that felt. I probably will do it again.

Anyway, I keep pushing forward. I get everything pointed
towards the obstacles in my way. Right now, those are a LRC and the
Dreadknight. It takes a lot of shooting, but I take them both out. The
challenge is that I'm not killing enough, because I haven't really engaged any
of Jefe's close combat strength and I'm going to need to reduce that in some
manner to keep him from flooding the
zone.

In Jefe's turn, he continues to fire away, but much to
his chagrin, doesn't do much other than take two hull points off my LRC. I'm
breathing a sigh of relief as I think I can still get the LRC in his deployment
zone to unload its cargo. Unfortunately for Jefe, his Draigo enhanced Storm Raven doesn't make it
on and although Callie does, he decides that she wouldn't help much next turn,
so declines to bring her on (per Coteaz).

Turn 3

Even though I didn't lose much last turn, I am feeling
the pressure. I've got to get to the objective and start to screen it off so I
can own it.

The Caestus
continue flying in, one straight up the left side, the other peels off a bit to
take on a target of opportunity. The
remaining vindis move up to engage the monkey people and their witch
handlers, while the Redeemer and Crusader slide over to the ruin where the
Purifiers and rhino encased monkey boys are. The Caestus in combination with
the LRC blow the rhino, causing the monkeys to run for the ruins, while the
Redeemer introduces the Purifiers to the Holy fire of the Emperor's wrath. They
don't like that one bit and five of them arrange themselves in a very warm
formation known as "The Candelabra". The rest get out of there and
move to support the monkeys.

Jefe does not get Draigo or the horse he rode on it. I
try to look sympathetic. I'm not sure I was successful. Callie comes in again
and this time Jefe puts here over by the Purifiers and the monkeys. Note: this
is not the name of the band. The fact that the monkeys were named Peter, David,
Mike, and Mickey is purely coincidental.

The LR on my right keeps closing in on my flank and
between it and two other monkey squads, my vindicator squadron is no more. The
Grey knight squad on the far right starts running across the open fields. This
turns out to not be a career enhancing move as we will see next turn.

Turn 4

My rightmost Caestus sees something sparkly moving across
the open field. It doesn't like sparkles. They remind it of a lousy vampire TV
show. Sparkles bad. Caestus kill sparkles. RAWR!

The other Caestus hovers down and unloads the terminator
s, who are adorned in anti-monkey colors and equipped with anti-monkey shields
and anti-monkey hammers. Their political stance is basically anti-monkey. I
think one of them had monkey poo thrown on him as a small child at the zoo. In
any case, they aren't feeling very pro-monkey at this point.

The Redeemer and Crusader continue to pour fire into the Purifiers.

Now here's the rub. Mr. Anti-Sparkles does a good job
with his placement, but only kills four out of the five. That becomes important
later. The anti-monkey squad trashes the monkey, but unfortunately, the Inquisitor
gets to swing first and he actually takes out a termie. Sigh. This enrages the
rest of the squad and they rub monkey guts all over the Inquisitor. Violently.
He doesn't survive. As I recall, the Crusader and Redeemer only kill one. The
witches are still looking pretty good.

Jefe gets his Storm Raven in and of course, he brings it
over to where all the action is. I find it rather ironic that we are playing on
a 4' x 6' table, but over in this one 2' x 2' square, we've got three flyers,
two land raiders and 8 squads of infantry fighting over one frigging objective.

Oddly enough, outside of some repositioning, not a lot
happens in Jefe's turn...Oops, not true. Draigo et al, do kill two of my
terminators and I whiff back. We stand and fight.

Turns 5-6

This turns into one big, nasty mash up. Jefe clears off
all my vehicles except my Crusader and my Hunter. The Hunter would eventually
down Jefe's Storm Raven in Turn 6. I throw squads left and right into the
scrum. Callie dies, but takes half a squad with her. The Paladins prove to be
extremely resilient, as you would expect. My assault squads seem to have lots
of attacks, but no staying power in front of the Paladins, or have staying
power due to the combat shields. My termies don't do as well as I would like,
though one stood up to Draigo for three rounds of hand to hand, drawing.

The long and short of it though is, my squads don't have
enough oomph! to secure the objective. Jefe has me on points due to vehicle
kills, but I haven't killed enough to be ahead.

So, I'm really close, but all things being equal, I can
see Jefe's Paladins taking me down through attrition because my chainswords
just aren't getting through their armor.

We roll for a Turn 7 and the game ends. I want to say that
Jefe was up on victory points by 3 or 4 (I'm guessing that the score was around
10 to 6/7-ish), but because he was going to be able to contest the siege
objective, I was never going to get beyond a draw.

So well done, Jefe! Great game.

Observations on the Siege List

1. When I first mentioned I was looking at this list,
people with experience said "it's a fun list, but difficult to win
with". I would agree with that sentiment. It was a blast to play. However,
I pretty much took things bog standard and I can see where I could have been
more efficient with my points.

2. The Assault
squads (10 man) are a fun unit to play around with. You can configure
them to do a lot of different things, but I think you need to spend some time
making sure that they can accomplish their objectives. That means getting some melee weapons in
there (and remembering that they are there so you use them :P ).

3. I don't think you have to take flyers to make this
list work, but I do think that they can
be extremely beneficial...and let's face it. Caestus are cool looking and fun
to play with.

4. This list reminds me a lot of Romans in Ancients
wargaming. It's not subtle, it's brutal. That's what it does, so you better
make sure you don't spend your time tap dancing in your backfield with it. It
really needs to be "unleashed" upon the enemy. That is its strength.

Cheers,

[Arthanor]

That list really seems to lend itself well to BTs. Very aggressive play style and nice cc troop options. If only we could take crusader squads.. But I guess that's could be an "easy" house rule. Looks like it was fun and thank you for the battle report. It does contain valuable info for all of us being tempted by the list!

 

One quick nitpick: You said you denied prescience and hammerhands. Since both of those are blessings (and thus cast on your enemy, not on your squads), how do you deny them?

[Honda]

 

One quick nitpick: You said you denied prescience and hammerhands.

Since both of those are blessings (and thus cast on your enemy, not on

your squads), how do you deny them?

 

So by your tone, I'm guessing that I'm not supposed to do that. I guess we thought (incorrectly, it sounds) that if it was a psychic power, that it could be rolled for.

 

I'm guessing you probably want me to go back and read the rules. :P

[Andhil]

1.Loving the Armoured Spearhead in those first pictures. It does sort of spread an air of "This is gonna hurt". I like that.

2. HOLY that Storm Eagle looks nice.

3. 2 Caestus' flying side by side looks nasty.

4.Adamantium Will rocks.

5.Good Game, and as always, fun to read!

 

Reading batreps really gets the Zeal going. I'm starting to get back into the BT's myself lately. Needed to do a "pilgrimage" to renew my faith. And now we're back, and we've got something of a bug infestation over here, right now the Emperor's faithful lead 1-0.

 

But I digress, keep those batreps coming Honda! Your efforts to stop the Witches are an inspiration to all. They will tell of your achievements to the next generation.

[Tekman]

Well fought brother, it sounds like a glorious day of chips, soda and banter was achieved, keep at it!

[Sir_Isenhar]

Glory to the Templars! a really nice battle report..  I enjoyed reading it!

Looking forward to a group shot of all your Templars with all the flyers you have above them..

 

Still on my list to do it to try out your weathering advice on my Templar vehicles! keep us motivated!