WarriorFish's Sunder CSM

[Arkaniss]

A Rhino for sure at least. For all the excitement about the possibilities 8th brings I don't think having all your troops huffing it up the board is gonna work.

[Kierdale]

Looking very smart indeed!

And I definitely want to see a Rhino in that scheme! :tu:

[WarriorFish]

I think it's going to be inevitable, treadhead aside a couple sound like a good idea for some forward ranging units. Evenings have not yielded any painting fruit sadly but I got a couple more Marines done at least:

[Kierdale]

Nice posing.

Can we see some tattoos on that shaven head?

[WarriorFish]

I think that can be something to do I was musing on transfers/Chapter symbols again yesterday so there's still bits to decide on and sort out on the scheme. Once they're ready for some proper games I'll get a better feel for how they look and what I might like to return and add to - not to mention not having to focus purely on getting them table top ready (which still feels so far away!).

[WarriorFish]

A very busy day, three extra Marines and no small amount of the paint job done! It's later than I thought, but that's a side effect of the longer lasting daylight which was much appreciated.

Yjun himself is on the way too, but being the vain villain he is won't be seen without his face on I'm hoping to get these to the same level as the previous batch, so I can pick off the remaining bits in the coming week

[WarriorFish]

A very productive weekend, I've got a lot of painting done and I think I need to think about new brushes now The cluster of Marines are now almost finished, bar the sides of their bases and backpacks. Seems my phobia of them only gets worse, but I can work on them - they're a pain to do but not hard.

The first six:


Matched by the latest additions:

I've also got the upgrade weapons done for the Champs

To round things off, I've secretly been working on Yjun, the Chaos Lord. He's fully magnetised so I can swap out for anything I like - even a different head


My first 500pts list is almost complete

[Arkaniss]

That's some awesome progress and results! They look really good all together and I like the bright pink plumes :tu: Hopefully you can finish them all soon then we can get a group shot. It's certainly going to be a striking scheme with a load of them together :)

[Knight of the Raven]

The pink crests are well painted... but they look absolutely weird to me.

 

And I can't help but think 'strutting down the street LIKE A BAWSS' when I look at Yjun, sorry.

[WarriorFish]

I wanted something to tie them a little more to Slaaneshi pink, plus it seemed right to do something pure pink as opposed to turning it melon with washes. That's exactly how he goes down the streets though - when you're that fabulous you have your own theme tune too

 

The pose is originally intended to work with a jump pack, but that will come later when I find the bits and can afford the points

[WarriorFish]

I had a busy weekend, taking the Sunder to Nottingham! They found it very droll and unbefitting for beings such as themselves but I had a great time introducing myself to 8th Edition

Unfortunately my first game went very badly, with poor luck versus my opponent's good luck things were already looking bad after my first turn achieved nothing:

This being the start of my opponent's turn. There's 498pts of CSM on the table here ... at the start of turn 2 there's a lot less It was downhill from there as despite my best efforts I couldn't see any way to fight back but better to get new model, army (and edition?) syndrome out of the way right? I didn't get any more pictures as aside from being busy learning the rules and trying to dig my way out of a hole it was over fairly quickly...

Game two was up against some more Codex Marines, with fair numbers and a balanced approach. It seems the dice gods felt remorse for the last game as I found myself with all the luck and my opponent bereft! Turn 2 had my 15 Marine squad crash into the Tactical squad and thanks to Yjun's re-rolls and DttFE they took a heavy toll.

It only got worse for the loyalists afterwards as four Assault Marines fell to overwatch and the survivor failed his charge... with this my 10 Marine squad moved up and my opponent had only honour left to fight for.

Fortunately the final two games left the extremes of luck behind and were more close run things. The third game against Space Wolves saw me introduced to the new Deep Striking mechanics: turn 1 saw some Terminators arrive nearby!

The Terminators made the charge, but luck was with me as the Wolf Priest didn't. A bit of good rolling saw a couple Marines saved and when turn 2 rolled round the entire force rounded on them...

With pistol shots in the shooting phase and re-rolls on 1s and extra attacks on 6s coupled with a lot of chainswords I mustered a lot of attacks. Sadly the two wounds and 2+ save proved strong but falling power swords and arcing lightning claws took their toll along with a few unlucky 1s. That proved enough - the trade of four CSM for 5 Terminators was one to put me favourite to win

The Wolf Priest wasted no time getting stuck in and proved a tough cookie especially regenerating but one extra wound wasn't enough and he was dragged down.

At this point the two Hunter squads decided discretion was the better part of valour and tried to put some space between us to prevent a charge.

It works, but only for a turn... here the Sunder prepare to charge! The 10 Marine squad is finished off in the ensuing assault but not before delivering enough casualties for my opponent to call the game.

Last but not least, to mix it up my last game was against some Alpha Legion. Once again a finely painted army but thanks to all my efforts and time spent I felt the Sunder could stand proudly next to them on the table top It was a mixed list with some Cultists and Spawn as well as a Rhino. Some efficient shooting and a long charge saw my 15 Marine squad shoot down and chop up a lot of Cultists and the morale system saw the remaining four run away. I could consolidate into the Spawn to protect myself from their charge and the Chosen squad's plasma.

From here it was mostly a brawl, with Yjun getting stuck in to help the assault squad and the shooty squad getting charged by the Rhino. The Chosen and Spawn are cut down, their Lord with them but not without inflicting a lot of damage. It's not enough to stop the Sunder form moving on and finishing the survivors off for a third victory, but the closest fought.

I had an absolute blast and it was great to get the Sunder on the table top 8th is very different to 7th but is really improved, I'm looking forward to getting a lot more games in. I went in without much knowledge of the rules but after my first game I was fine and even helping my opponents with them

Hitting in 3s in combat made combat so much better, and a large squad generating extra attacks was pretty brutal. Add in the Lords re-rolls on 1s and you have a squad that hurts. Not to mention the Lord's 2+ to hit with his own re-roll! Felt really good to have him be effective in combat and improving nearby squads.

The changes to vehicles is obviously huge, but it worked well. Was nice to see Rhinos being much tougher but I felt they could be tackled fine even at lower points. Whether that's in time before they disgorge their cargo is another matter perhaps Overcharged plasma is nifty too, I think it'll be well worth using against the right targets especially if you have your Lord nearby.

Now it's a case of seeing what's next for the Sunder, and maybe sorting some finished model shots? Perhaps now I have my legal core to an army it's time for some Terminators!

[Vel'Cona]

They look amazing on the tabletop, WF, regardless of how the games played out!  How do you feel about 8th thus far?

[WarriorFish]

Thanks Vel I lost one game out of four, albeit very badly, which is not bad going for a new army so I can't complain.

 

From all I had read beforehand I was confident that 8th was going to be good. Now I've got some games under my belt I can't wait to play some more. Things like not having to fuss about where casualties come from and where your Champion and special weapons stand so much was nice and more importantly sped things up. I like how there's more depth to combat rather than simply swinging - plus that now Marines hit on a flat 3+ your supposed elite super-soldiers don't keep missing so much

 

Getting saves against some nasty weapons of yester-edition was nice too, I made a few too which felt like a free Marine Along with weapons like autocannons and heavy bolters making a difference against saves it added a lot of flavour and I could practically weep tears of joy for the long maligned heavy bolter finally having a good place

 

I was up to 11pm the night before leaving to finish the bases and feared I would be burnt out. Not so! I had so much fun my hobby engine has an excess of fuel Expect more scions of Slaanesh soon!

[Arkaniss]

Wow those are some impressive armies! Must have been awesome to see and of course the Sunder look boss. Always like seeing a Marine horde and they look amazing all together. :D Congrats on the wins too

 

Looks like a horde Marine army is more viable in 8th? I guess with pie plates and templates gone it does help. I'll be having my first 8th game soon I'm looking forward to it! So it's Terminators next? Maybe a Rhino after that...? ;)

[WarriorFish]

A Rhino will be soon after Terminators yes, I think they'll make a big difference for squads aiming to get close and personal. I'm thinking of a couple of BP/CCW squads for larger point games, give them both a Rhino and send them in to get chopping. Maybe even take advantage of the plasma pistol option for CSM, so they can shoot well in combat?

 

Thanks to more saves than before with the armour modifier mechanic Marines are more survivable and blast weapons being reduced in effectiveness goes a long way too - plus less hassle as you don't need to worry so much about placement. I think my opponents struggled a bit with my numbers so I'm still confident that 8th is the era of the trooper, or at least infantry heavy lists are more viable. Vehicles are good of course, but you pay for it also.

[Excessus]

Your big units were scary, man! :)

[Captain Idaho]

The pink crests are well painted... but they look absolutely weird to me. :P

 

And I can't help but think 'strutting down the street LIKE A BAWSS' when I look at Yjun, sorry. :lol:

The photos don't do them justice as they look ace in the flesh - trust me I know ;)

 

As for the trial by combat for 8th - I totally agree with WarriorFish. Take decent troops numbers. Small numbers suffer from terrible luck.

 

Also, Rhinos are amazing. As demonstrated to me by Excessus, first and second turn charges are now a thing thanks to Rhinos.

[WarriorFish]

Small squads of Marines do have an advantage in that the squad dies quickly so you're less likely to lose them from battle shock :P Rhinos are much more expensive but the results are worth it, unless your opponent musters some decent fire power you'll be assaulting them by turn 2. If your squad isn't above 10 models then a Rhino is well worth considering :)

[WarriorFish]

I've made a start already Here's the first two Terminators, a Champ and heavy:

Late night pictures are never great but there's not too much to see before they get paint. A magnetised arm on the heavy weapon of course Might add in a few magnetised left arms so I can swap between powerfist/chainfist/lightning claw for a bit of variety. Shame I only have the power sword option with the plastics, but I can look into that once I've got a squad done

[WarriorFish]

The next three are done, with some more magnetisation (naturally):

The kit is a bit of a treasure trove, with the extra bits I could squeeze another left arm option in With the other two sets I have that should mean a fair bit of options (standard power weapons aside) Just the combi-melta for now as that's for my 750pts plan but I'll add some more later.

I'm hoping they'll be quite quick to paint, though I'm unsure on a couple of things. I've left the head and top of the armour off so I can paint the helmet but I'm not sure about the process. It'd be better to paint the top at the same time as the rest of the model to better match the colours but I might risk undoing my hard work on the helmets. I can't see a better way so I'll just need to be really careful.

Second is the shoulder pads. The lack of trim means they won't have much gold on compared to the rest of the Sunder so they might end up looking a bit different so I might try painting the odd shoulder entirely gold?

[Teetengee]

The next three are done, with some more magnetisation (naturally):

-snip-

Bottom right corner, he looks like a boxer of some kind, just hauling back to punch someone. Do you know if that kit has a suitable right fist to match the left in such a pose?

[WarriorFish]

It does, there's a couple of right handed power fists (or lightning claws, if you'd prefer - the chainfist attachment would require modding for a right hand). One is open and one closed, should give a "giving a big swing" and "pugilist" style pose respectively :)

[WarriorFish]

I've decided to focus on one model for the moment, see how it looks and maybe consider a few alternatives about where to put gold or otherwise break up the melon/white (potentially):

Special bonus in that I've got a few more Daemonettes These require some TLC and one is a bit broken, but she'll go in for the conversion plans This brings my foot Daemonette total up to 55 which should cover my needs amply I wonder if I can find a few more Seekers somewhere, at least for a price that isn't silly...

[WarriorFish]

I got some more games in with my Sunder over the weekend against a variety of foes. It was a busy day teaching/learning 8th so I didn't record things in detail, the batreps will be short - mostly described by picture

Sisters

The Sisters had two Rhinos which made things interesting. Fortunately this meant numbers was on my side and with only a bit of shooting available before the Sunder hit I was able to weather it well. Heavy weapons fire was embarrassingly rubbish but overcharged plasma worked well enough.

Using an Act of Faith the second Rhino sped up behind to disgorge Sisters which proved bad news for the weapons squad. Fortunately the idiots hung on for Yjun to arrive after chopping up the rest of the Sisters, where he did what he soon earned a reputation for - shredding things! Leaving two Rhinos stuck in combat with my Marines my opponent conceded, but not before running over a melta.

Black Templars

Against a few Crusade Squads with a Chaplain in support this was going to be about meeting your foe chainsword to chainsword! Which is unsurprisingly exactly how it played out. The heavy weapons were mediocre, managing to kill a couple in the opening salvo but otherwise they weren't great. The squad lead by Yjun performed excellently. Moving up to meet the Templars their shooting phase handled one squad allowing them to charge into the Chaplain's:

This proved to be decisive as bundling in with lots of attacks hurt, giving the Templars a bloody nose they couldn't really recover from. The third squad abandoned their plans to deal with the weapons squad and joined the fray, but with Yjun fast earning a name for spilling blood it wasn't enough. Despite moving up to assist the weapons squad didn't get to help out, not that the Templars didn't leave a dent on their way out (as is their way)!

There was also a third game against GK, but since my opponent neglected to realise that their smite was a weakened version leading to me losing over half my army before I even had a turn there seems no point in recording it (or counting it). Yjun still carved his way through a lot of GK though

I've had quite a few games of 8th now, really getting the hang of it - and all but one of them with the Sunder! It's time to move them on to the next level, in this case 750pts with the addition of the Terminators I'm working on now

[Arkaniss]

The Sunder are looking great on the table! They seem to be quite potent in 8th so that must be encouraging. Termies and a Rhino to ferry a squad around should further increase their potential :)

 

Yeah Smite is nasty, I ran a Psyker to test it out and it's as good as it looks on paper. Each squad of GK throwing out Smite would be crazy!