War in the Chalcitis Insulam System - 3rd dreadnought p. 5

[deathspectersgt7]

That looks COOL!!!!

[Warsmith Aznable]

...today I started some shields for a breacher squad. Here are the shields, and some of them blue-taced to some marines just for size...

 

 

I like those shields. I may try to copy you in the future on those.

[Natanael]

@deathspectresgt7 Thank you. I just searched the web for some space and planet pictures and then added them together with photoshop. Quite easy, but very striking for the small work that is needed. =)

 

@-Max- Thank you. They are supereasy to do. The only problem is that they are straight, and not curved like the FW ones. I guess you could bend them under hot water or something, but when I tried it didn't pan out too well, so I made them straight instead. 

[Chickenleg]

Even if i hate the wolves for what they did to Prospero i have to say that you got a lovely army going on here. My favorite is the rhino, very smart positioning of colors. Nice!

[Excessus]

Campaign? Bring it! :D

[Natanael]

@Chickenleg Lot's of hate going around ;) Thank you. I did the rhino as an experiment, mostly, but it turned out quite well so now I might have to do some more stuff like that. 

 

@Excessus First planetary introduction, featuring your AL ;) 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img845/5740/kqz.gif

 

 

Manete Majoris

The largets planet in the system, and the one closest to the systems sun, is called Manete Majoris. The planet was once perhaps the most prominent manufacturing planet in the surrounding systems, but after an Alpha Legion plot threatened to blow the whole planet apart production has decreased. Altough the planet survived the explosions triggered by the Chaos forces it left the planetary core unstable and prone to violent outbursts of magma. The Mechanicum was quick to protects it's most vital factories, harnessing the burning and violent core to power the machines needed to continue operating some of the plasmaforges on the planet. However, as the surface of the planet started to die, factories were either relocated underground or to other planets in the system.

 

The huge magma valley that can be seen on the planet surface from space is know to the populace of the world as "The Emperors Blood" and tough nothing living can get close to the valley without severe burns from the hot air bursting from the ground all around the valley it is widely considered a token of the Emperors blessing, a sign that He saved the world from the forces of Chaos.

 

Hope you guys like it =) 

[Excessus]

"a sign that He saved the world from the forces of chaos"...but he didn't...not completely... ;)

[Natanael]

We will see, as the plot thickens. Maybe the Alpha Legion has returnet to Manete Majoris. Or did they ever really leave?

[Excessus]

Were they ever really even there? ;)

[ephrael]

@deathspectresgt7 Thank you. I just searched the web for some space and planet pictures and then added them together with photoshop. Quite easy, but very striking for the small work that is needed. =)

 

@-Max- Thank you. They are supereasy to do. The only problem is that they are straight, and not curved like the FW ones. I guess you could bend them under hot water or something, but when I tried it didn't pan out too well, so I made them straight instead. 

If you want the shields curved try placing them against a soda can then gluing them together with plastic glue.  You use a thick rubber band to hold the pieces against the can while the glue sets.  The shape of the can and the glue make the plastic form a curve when the plastic pieces have bonded.

[mactire]

Just saw this thread, really nice wolves you've got there. I like the grey colour, the bases are class and love the chaos bits added in, you have balanced them well not overdone at all. Just a question what kind of paper have you used in your light box and also is that a certain type of lamp or just an ordinary one?.  

[Natanael]

For my light box I just use some gift-wrapping paper that we had that was really thin. And then I put a regular printing paper behind my guys when I take pictures. For lamps I use ordinary ones, from four different angles to minimize shadows. I have been thinking about getting some daylight-lamps, but havent got around to it yet. 

 

@mikhail So you mean I glue it to the bottle and then pry it off, bent, when the glue has set? Or I glue two sheets of plasticard togehter and keep them at the bottle with the rubber band? Now that I write, I figure you mean the second, right? 

 

So, time for some new planet to join the system:

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img19/4719/9v4l.jpg

 

 

Vella Tumulis

Refered to as "Lovers Cloud" by the Imperial Guard the second planet in the system is known to Imperial Administrators and it's populace as Vella Tumulis. The pink mist that surrounds the planets stems from a chemical reaktion with the unstable atmosphere and the gases emitted by the planets underground factories. Making the surface somewhat of a deathworld, the planet still harbours several large cities, each covered in a atmospheric bubble of clean air, maintained by the Mechanicum to allow the people of Vella Tumulis protection just as they raise regiments to protect the Mechanicum and it's work throughout the system.

With the air outside of the atmospheric bubbles being highly poisonus most of the surface is deserted, and the humans keep to their cities or underground workplaces. There have, however, been reported sightings and readings of biological beings moving outside the atmospheric bubbles, and as such the local PDF have been commanded to conduct searches for lifeforms outside of the bubbles. So far no discoveries have been made, but the PDF remain vigilant, scanning the plains for signs of who or whatever it was that showed itself.

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img843/7275/i3o5.jpg

 

 

Manete Campestri

The third planet is not, by conventional means, Imperial. Knows as Manete Campestri it is home to several ork clans that fight amongst themselves. As the planet has no natural resources to speak of, but serves as a bastion against agressive expansion from alien races, the orks are allowed to continue their lives on the surface almost unhindered. Every few years the Imperial Guard and Mechanicum send aerial patrols to attack and destroy most of the Ork settlements. Keeping the numbers low in this way, they can use the planet not only as a buffer against possible aggression, but also as a testing ground for new weaponary. The surface of Manete Campestri is riddled with huge craters bearing wittness to the testing of warheads and newer artillery. For this purpose, the Mechanicum keep an automated bastion on the north plains of the planet, an area know by the Orks as a haunted place, a place where there is no fighting and no loot, only death.

 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img842/5483/7de4.jpg

 

 

 

Tumulis Arce

Perhaps the most inhabitable planet of the system, Tumulis Arce is the home of most of the systems Imperial citizens. Sporting two large hives, the planet is still mostly covered in farmland and oceans. Tumulis Arce is the main supplier of food and manpower across the system, as well as home to most of the governing functions. The Mechanicum keep their leadership in an underground fortress on Vella Tumulis, but the Imperial Administratum as well as the planetary Governor are based in the main hive of Tumulis Arce; Arce Majoris. As most of the systems human inhabitants are found on this planet, they also have the largest PDF. Even tough most of it consists of citizen militas and factory battalions the planets has, through its connections to the mechanicum, a considereble armory, and the militia is well equipped and often bolstered by special robot maniples of the mechanicum whenever a threat arises. 

 

+++++++++++++++++

 

I just noticed the lines in the picture of Manete Campestri. I'll have to sort that out for the actual campaign-pdf. For now this will do. Those four are all the planets of the Chalcitis Insulam system, and next up I am working on a campaign map to be able to track the progress of the different factions as they conquer the planets or defend their territory. So far we have 11 people, gathered for the campaign, including me. I'll probably not play that much but rather come up with scenarios and write fluff, as well as keep track of the progress of the factions. 

 

So far we have an Eldar/Dark Eldar faction of four players, a Chaos faction of three players, an Imperial Faction of two players (and me, maybe) and then there is a Hive Fleet coming our way from the last player. I think it will be very awesome to see the progress the different factions make, as we are mostly very balances players, both in skill and in army compositions. =) 

[ephrael]

You glue two pieces of plastic together and hold them to a beverage can, not a bottle. The plastic could potentially bond to a drink bottle not an aluminum can if you use plastic cement.

[Natanael]

Ah. Now I get it. =)

[Natanael]

Forgive me for the double-post, but I have made progress on my wolves. I have built and primed four terminators and a land raider from some old minis I had. The terminators have either power axes or frost blades, I havent decided yet. And combi-plasmas/meltas. All of them have the combi-weapon maglocked to the back, except for the combi-melta-guy, who has a shield there instead. The land raider is a home made redeemer variant. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img10/2481/r2fp.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img546/6351/jlqi.jpg

[Natanael]

Since noone commented since my last post, I'll do a double one. =) 

Had two games with my Space Wolves yesterday, in preparation for the Campaign. First a friend wanted to try out some of the new nids, and then I had a game against Excessus and his Alpha Legion. Of that I took no pictures since I played really badly. You'll get a batrep of the game against the tyrnaids however:

 

So, we played 1750 points and this is the armies, roughly, from memory:

Wolf Lord on bike with runic armour, SS; PF, Wolf Tooth Necklace

Wolf Guard Battle Leader inte TDA, with dual Wolf Claws

5 Wolf guards in terminator armour. 4 had power axe and combi-plasma, one had PW, SB and CML. 

10 GH in pod, with dual plasmas and MotW

10 GH in pod, with dual meltas and MotW

10 GH in rhino with dual plasmas, MotW and Wolf Standard

5 Bikes (one was attackbike)

6 Long Fangs with missile launchers

Vindicator

Land Raider Redeemer

 

Since it was his 2nd outing of the new book, he proxied lots of stuff. He had

 

Flying Hive Tyrant

Tyranid Prime

9 Warriors with rending claws and some kind of shooting

2 Venomphropes (best unit in the book now, IMO)

2 Tyrand Guard (the shooty ones, not the guardy ones)

2 Lictors

20 Termas

20 Termas with devourers (outflanking)

Mawloc

Harpy

Exocrine

 

I think that's it. Our deploys looked like this:

http://imageshack.com/a/img30/2108/v0s4.jpg

 

I went first, and went for a tight refused flank, with the Long Fangs in the large building at the far side of the board. I had good firing lanes, and the objectives were placed so that I could deny him several of them, just by moving down the middle/far flank. So that was my plan. He deployed tightly around his Venomthropes, getting a bonus coversave on all of his stuff. The Devourer-guants outflanked. The huge guy in the ruin is the exocrine, and behind him is the Tyrant, and then the Harpy. He failed to seize the initiative. 

 

I dropped my first pod, plasma, on the left, blocking the path to two of the objectives with the pod, and unloading the squad to go and claim the 3+ cover of the structure. We played the fortress tower as impassible and the missile silo as 3+ cover when in it. I had my cool Mark of the Wulfen leading the charge towards the 3+ cover. A very courageous charce, since nothing in the nid army could see them =) 

http://imageshack.com/a/img69/8716/5wby.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img841/7969/ktxu.jpg

 

SW Turn 1: 

I didnt do much but advance, for the rest of the turn. He had 3+ or 2+ cover on all of his stuff, so I fired my missiles and the LR on the Exocrine and managed to get two wounds on it, but not much else. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img854/3480/5cjo.jpg

 

Nid turn 1:

He mostly spread out, trying to get his tyrant down my right side, towards my Long Fangs,  and got a shot at my rhino, and blew it up. The guys piled out, and five of them got a taste of the new Exocrine gun, dying. He also managed 2 glancing hits on my Vindicator from the Tyrant Guards. Also, the harpy fired at the pod squad and the bikes, and got a few of them. Lots of dead wolves on his first turn, but that would soon be revenged. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img853/1927/9sg0.jpg

[Natanael]

SW Turn 2

My 2nd pod didnt arrive, so I pressed the attack. The pod squad went into the missile silo, and the bikes and terminators went after some other targets. The shooting killed most of the screening termas, and I failed my charge with the Lord on bike. Mistake to shoot that much at them :P 

The Land Raider and Terminators went for the exocrine, unloading the combi-plasmas into it and despite the 3+ cover from the venomthropes he died. Pretty nice for me, since my terminators would be dead mead otherwise. 

 

The rhino squad, tried to revenge their fallen brothers and actually got the Hive Tyrant grounded, the plasma guns doing work. A full salvo from the Long Fangs later and he was a bloody stain on the ground. I felt good now, having taken out two of the most dangerous (I felt) things in his army. I was still worried about the warriors, especially when I failed the charge with the Lord, but yeah. I had a lot of stuff. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img46/5498/0w30.jpg

 

Nid Turn 2

http://imageshack.com/a/img4/6777/xgu5.jpg

 

His lictors came on, and targeted my Vindicator. It died, sadly. :P I think his devourer-termas came on as well, and he placed them behind my Long Fangs, ready to claim an objective and kill my heavy support. They got all but one of the Long Fangs and the Wolf Guard Terminator with shooting, so I still had 3 missiles at least. Then he charged his warriors into my bikes, mainly my Lord, and I challenged. Altough he had a better shot at killing the Lord with the rest of the rending attacks from the warriors, he opted to accept the challenge with his Prime, and my Wolf Lord smashed him to a pulp. =) The last poor bikes died, tough. No suprise  there. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img12/5426/g0b3.jpg

 

SW Turn 4

With my 2nd pod coming along, I decided to rescue my Long Fangs as well as claim an objective close by. I killed some of the gaunts, but not all. They were 20 to start with, after all. In other news, I hunted the tyrant guard with my terminators, but was a bit too slow. Or they were too far away. The Lord killed some warriors, and actually lived. =) The first pod squad moved unto an objective, as did the rhino squad. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img547/4097/rdlw.jpg

 

Nid Turn 4

 

The Mawloc appeared, killing the remains of the rhino squad, and thereby robbing me of one of the objectives. Then his harpy executed some more of the first pod squad. The lone survivor bravely stood his ground, tough. My Lord finally died to the warriors, and the last of his termagaunts moved a bit out of hiding, positioning themselves 8 inches away from the objective, ready to dart forward next turn. The unpainted Raveners in the lower pic are Venomphropes, and the pained ones are warriors. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img69/7513/872u.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img838/2326/0m0z.jpg

 

SW Turn 5

 

Since this could be my last turn I just consolidated onto the objectives I had, and tried to shoot the warriors with the Land Raider. I got some of them, and the Wolf Guard Battle Leader and his remaining two terminators charged the warriors as well. The brave companions fell, however, to two lucky hits from overwatch and the WGBL had to charge on his own. He got stuck in, and killed a warrior, took no damage in return and locked them away from the objective. I also cleared out the last of his outflanking termagaunts, and took some pot shots at the harpy. No wounds on the flyer, tough. The lone survivor of pod squad 1 also had a standoff with the mawloc, as can be seen in the last pic =) 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img836/4237/z8f2.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img202/5613/b2m0.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img11/880/zcht.jpg

 

Nids Turn 5

 

As he didnt have a lot of stuff left, he did what he could. The Termagaunts leapt out of hiding, and unto the objective in the middle. The Mawloc went for the Land Raider, and the Harpy denied the lone GH the objective. He shot, and then charged him, but the man stood fast. =) Brave guy, born to be a Lone Wolf it seems. In close combat between the warriors and the WGBL I gutted another one, but to no avail. The termagaunts were already on the objective. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img689/505/bf7f.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img10/1048/pmi8.jpg

 

 

With that, the game ended and he claimed victory. Another turn and I could have easily contested the termagaunt objective or just killed them, and then I would have won. The score in the end was
 

Nids

Slay the Warlord (wolf lord)

Linebreaker (harpy)

First Blood

One objective (3VP)

 

Space Wolves

Slay the Warlord (Prime)

One objective (3VP)

Hope you liked it. Be sure to leave a comment or something =) 

[deathspectersgt7]

Everything looks cool ,Great job on the planets.

[Flint13]

I'll admit I have a soft spot for pre-heresy wolves, I think because they are down there with PH white scars in their under-representation. I like your painting! It's very clean and crisp, even though you go with plenty of weathering. My favorite is your homemade land raider though. Those little side sponsons change the profile completely. They make it look a lot more armored than the standard variant with stuff just hanging off the sides ^_^

 

How are you finding the Redeemer to perform in-game though? I tried one for awhile, but it was always such a pain to hit things with both flame cannons.

[Excessus]

No pics were taken the game after this though... :(

[Natanael]

Thank you, flint and deathspectersgt7. 

 

I think the wolves are quite deep in the pile of under-representation, as you say. To be honest, I can't really figure out why. Alright, I've been an SW fanboy for most of my 40k-career, but even the "they are just vikings in space and I hate it"-people supposedly loves the new books about them. When I read the HH-books like Prospero Burns and A Thousand Sons I got a whole new level of respect and love the the sons of Russ. But apparently noone else did :P I agree that the Scars are in the same spot. I havent read any of the new stuff GW released about them yet, but I guess it will make me wanna start them too. =) Also, when the Prospero-book is released from FW I think we're gonna see some more wolves. Even tough people generally seem to be one the side of the Thousand Sons (treacherous witches). =)

 

Anyway - I've not been that active the past week because I've been starting to work 50% and study at 150%, so I'm quite fully booked. I did, however, start to work on a real project of love; a Zone Mortalis-board. I figured that the FW one was cool, but superexpensive. So I'm gonna build my own. Here are the first teasers:

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img33/2826/kuh0.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img801/3079/n9v1.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img41/2264/4cw4.jpg

 

I also started to try something new. I was going to build a deamon army to fight my Space Wolves, but I needed wings to the MCs. So I started a tester to make wings myself. We'll see how i goes. It's gonna be green-stuffed to get a nice fleshy feel, and then I'm gonna try to integrate in into my DPs back. =) 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img43/4457/ci17.jpg

[deathspectersgt7]

Cool to see you do your own zone been thinking about doing that myself .I have a friend doing one.

[Forté]

Zone Mortalis looks fun

[Natanael]

@deathspectresgt7 Yeah, it is a lot of fun. And not that hard at all. I'm not going for insande detail, just for a playable thing with some character, so It's not much of a hassle getting it together. 

 

@forte If you havent played it, you really should. It's a bit quicker then the regular game of 40k, and with some nice special rules and, if you want, some house rules you can get really great battles with a lot of players on the same board. We played with six ppl last time, everyone hunting for objectives that deep striked into the middle of the board and then scattered. Loads of fun making alliances, back-stabs etc etc. =) 

Even tough school and work takes most of my time, I have done some work on the ZM. Hopefully a friend will be over tomorrow, and we can build another 4-5 tiles. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img23/4674/sb3f.jpg

 

Sgt. Ludendorf and his squad take firing positions down a hallway of the abandoned Space Hulk, firing on the Eldar advancing on their position. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img132/1931/7aao.jpghttp://imageshack.com/a/img716/943/3zm4.jpg

 

As time passes, however, squad Ludendorf finds themselves separeted, and with Eldar approaching from both above and below, they decide to hold their ground and call for reinforcements. 

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img132/8316/mnb2.jpg

 

 

This is what I've got so far. I'm gonna add a ton of barrels all over the place before priming, but other then that I think they are quite ready. Be sure to continue checking in to follow the adventures of Squad Ludendorf as they explore the Space Hulk, alone and surrounded by Eldar. =) 

[Forté]

Funny thing is, I organised something like Zone Mortalis back in '98 at GW Plaza (Oxford Street). The original idea never really happened but it was set on chaos ship with each corner being dedicated to a different god and the whole table being based on the 8 pointed star. The four build up games happened and bits were getting built but then people move to different stores and it never really got finished which was a huge shame. The idea was due to me seeing Event Horizon in the cinema.