A Mordian march to glory

[The Pounder]

I’d forgotten how big the Shadowsword is!

I wants it!!!

 

Great looking force.

[duz_]

GoldenRod indeed :)
Will be going into 5 rounds of battle this weekend

There are several IK's in the field (unsurprisingly, despite being a "friendly"?) including some pure IK lists

This Shadowsword will have its work cut out for it, but I have a trick or two up my sleeve which I think will hilariously work, most likely to the dismay of my IK opponents

Recess lined white? Not sure what you mean? Its an off white tank with some mica flakes in it

Slightly better pic:

Jud you should get 1... or 3! :D

[MithrilForge]

Cool thanks for the extra pics, yeah thats what i meant    A white coat with the recesses washed with Agrax?...

i gather it's still in need of metallics like the bolters tracks weapon barrels exhausts etc..etc

it looks really good  , that must've taken ages to finely wash around those rivets and recess lines   

 

awesome work, i must do my shadowsword now...(first my other stuff ...right  )

 

Cheers, Mithril

 

++EDIT++ you should have put the Las-cannons one slot closer to the front of the vehicle ...extra range 

Edited May 24, 2019 by mithrilforge

[MrZakalwe]

On the bright side I've found knights much easier to take down since they lost the 3++.

 

They now take 50% more damage from any weapon with a rend of -1 or better than they did. 

[duz_]

IK's can be a lot easier to take out without their 3++

However I can attest to that not always being so reliable... I'll explain later

Mithrl, good thing its a fully magentised tank and I can make all the variants and put the sponsons wherever
Sounds like you should be building and doing the same to yours!

So another year closes on the Midwest Conquest, its become our annual pilgrimage to Kansas City which marks not only our wedding anniversary, but also roughly the date I moved to the US (for a second time). This would have been my 4th consecutive year and the first they hosted a friendly tournament. I ended up drawing 5th for generalship, I don't know my overall score yet.

There wasn't many restrictions on the build as it turns out, other than 100PL and we were going to be playing CA18 Maelstrom missions.

Scoring was also split equally between painting, winning and "theme". Each was worth a max of 3 points and minimum of 1, draws being 2 and the judges scoring painting (I'm not sure if this was a different scale). Theme being a somewhat vague opponent scored value between army composition and sportsmanship. I generally gave my opponents 2 or 3 if they'd converted their army.

Personally I really enjoy maelstrom missions so that was probably my favorite part

The event was 5 rounds and my list was the following:

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Astra Militarum) ++
Regimental Doctrine: Regiment: Cadian

+ HQ +
Company Commander: Display Astra Militarum Orders, Laspistol, Power sword, Warlord
Tempestor Prime: Display Astra Militarum Orders, Plasma Pistol, Power sword

+ Troops +
2x Infantry Squad
Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Grenade Launcher
Guardsman w/ Vox-caster: Vox-caster
Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter

Infantry Squad
Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Grenade Launcher
Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter

Militarum Tempestus Scions
2x Scion
2x Scion w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
Tempestor: Chainsword, Hot-shot Laspistol

++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Imperium - Astra Militarum) ++
Regimental Doctrine: Regiment: Catachan
Vigilus Defiant: Emperor's Wrath Artillery Company

+ HQ +
Primaris Psyker: Force Stave

+ Elites +
Master of Ordnance: Emperor's Wrath

+ Heavy Support +
2x Basilisks: Emperor's Wrath
Wyverns: Emperor's Wrath

++ Supreme Command Detachment +1CP (Imperium - Astra Militarum) ++
Regimental Doctrine: Regiment: Valhallan

+ HQ +
Lord Commissar: Plasma pistol, Power fist, Power sword
Executioner Tank Commander: Lascannon, Plasma Cannons, Track guards
Punisher Tank Commander: Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolters, Track guards

+ Lord of War +
Shadowsword: Sponsons: 2x Lascannon, 2x Twin heavy bolter

+ Assassin reinforcement

My list was thrown together of what I had painted to a reasonable standard and something I wasn't going to get my teeth kicked in with. (Apparently I forgot to take a group shot of my list) The field was fairly diverse there was 20 of us in total. Some players complained I brought a Shadowsword and that I was min/maxing my list. The latter comment came from a DW player who had clearly brought a plastic knife to a gunfight and another opponent was playing a Hemlock (?) Fighter / Fire Prism / Wave Serpent / Psyker heavy Alaitoc army who was using Doom and Jinx

Despite a lot of grumbling about lists, the players were generally fun to play against. Certainly more relaxed than my experiences with the more competitive side of things.

I the course of 5 games I played against 5 IK's. 4 of which were from the 2nd pure IK army which sported 3 Crusaders and a Warden. The other IK army had a kitted out Castellan, 2 Crusaders and 2 Armigers. Unsurprisingly those 2 placed in the top 3... A Tau list won, although I'm not sure what it consisted of.

In my feedback, which I had discussed with several other attendees if they plan to run it again 1500pts and no LoW's would be the better option. My list was about 1700 pts and most others were 2000 - 2300.

Round 1 vs Admech / Sisters / IK list - WIN

This player had converted up a skaven army to be a combination of the above with a Warden.

It was a well done army and he won best Theme, which was his intent.
Again he complained I had a SS, despite his list containing a IK, Cawl and Celestine...

This was my first (and spoiler... only) confirmed IK kill of the game

I nuked it turn 1 with 36 damage

After that it was a blood bath with my Vindicare taking care of Celestine and my Punisher and Psyker finishing her off for a second time

We called the game in round 3?

Pics

Deployment

Action Shot

Shadowsword lines up for the kill

Depleted enemy forces

Celestine see the light...

Infiltrators wondering why they bothered showing up

Round 2 vs Alaitoc - LOSS
I thought I had this game (and so did my opponent) however it unraveled in turn 3

Trying to maxmise kills with my SS I split fire too much and charged 3 units across the bridge to try and take out his warlord and the wave serpent with the Crush them strat (most his main guns were hitting on 6's thanks to Eldar shenanigans)

Despite putting 5 of 9 attacks into his elf on a bike it survived on 2 wounds! The Serpent managed to shrug off damage too. I also misjudged the effectiveness of his Wraithlord in CC and it dealt 12 damage in a single round. It ended up blowing up the SS the following turn

That same following turn my opponent scored 6 points pushing him 3 ahead of me. With my main threat neutralised it was easy pickings for him to take out the rest of my tanks and my cards went cold.

Battlefield overview

Spaces elves hiding from the might of the Emperor

That fateful turn...

One of the few times the flyer wasn't -2/3 to hit and it still managed to shrug all my artillery shots

Scions trying to salvage some tactical objectives, they actually survived 2 solid turns

I have to head out for the evening, however I'll get around to reporting on rounds 3 - 5 shortly if not later this evening :tu:

[thewarriorhunter]

I like how your tank is making a statement: "this is my hill."

 

:D

[duz_]

That was his hill indeed! I don't think was a game where the Shadowsword wasn't deployed in a statement position

Game 3 vs DW - WIN

His list had a little fire power with a bunch of lascannons (dred's, razorbacks, redemptor), but other than that there wasn't anything special except the Vindicare assassin.

I got first turned and nuked his redemptor and one of the dreads

He managed to take out my Baneblade in reponse with all the remaining lascannons and a couple of Frag cannon vets

He also took out my MoO with his Vindicare assassin because he could see a point of the servo skull I had attached to him...

So after that there was very little friendly left, especially since he'd already complained about my SS

Highlight of the match was my Callidus showing up T2 8" away from his Vindicare then rolling box cars to kill him in melee

He conceded around T3 because I was just on mop up duty with his infantry

I scored a 2 on my theme, because he "couldn't understand" how 3 "random" regiments would form a fighting force? While is force was clearly DW

He also later complained I had min/maxed my list. Same player was matched with the Castellan list final round and we played on tables next to each other. I cheekly pointed at that the Castellan list made my list look friendly and I got a salty death dagger no... ohwell

Assassin off, mine won

T3 clean up duties

Round 4 vs UMs - WIN
This was probably my most fun and toughest match up of the whole event

I played a 12 yo kid who was there with their dad (turns out they live in a town not far from me)

The kid was playing mostly Primaris UM's with Calgar and bodyguard, his only AT was a 5 man Lascannon dev team and Hellblasters...

I worked hard not to table him by T2 and I almost lost my SS as a result, the kid almost gave up after T2, but I suggested he keep going as he had some VV's, Termies and Inceptors to come in

Geez they made their presence known! The same turn they arrived he nuked my SS (I only cast -1 to hit on it T2 after he did 12+ damage to it T1, he nuked it T3)

The terminators got close to my lines, the VV's took out my WL and the Inceptors started threatening my artillery. He also scored a bunch of points that turn as my cards turned cold again

I had to wipe out his VV's which were about to pounce on my artillery and he tanked 8 wounds on his 3++ stormshields from 2 basilisks (1 double shot) and my wyvren

At this point I was on the backfoot (I didn't actually want to lose but I wanted to give him a good game)

We ended up playing to T7 going back and forth from T5, I actually would have lost if it didnt go to 7, 6 if I was lucky.

It was a really fun match and over lunch the kid apparently kept saying to his dad it was the best game of 40k he had

Hopefully I see them both at a large gaming event I'm helping organise begining of August

Deployment - Trying not to be that guy who nukes the 12yo with Calagar in his list

WL gets punked with some Thunderhammers

Round 5 - Converted IK's - LOSS

Inevitably I play one of the 2 pure IK lists and on a table with 0 LoS blocking terrain and ruins

He deployed first, but I siezed my cards gave me a great opportunity to score 5pts T1 if I could nuke his WL in 1 go

I did 14 damage between my SS, overcharging plasmacutioner, 2 basilisks (1 twin linked and double shooting)...

So it was pretty much over from there I had hoped in the second turn to shoot and charge his IKs with the SS but it died T1 as the 3 Crusaders fired back

spent the next turn or two trying to get points where I could, but kept pulling defend objectives in his zone, I conceded in T4

At the end of the match he asked if I had fun to which my honest response was no, that a pure IK list in a friendly event was never going to be fun, not that he was a jerk of an opponent. He seemed surprised by it...

Was downhill from here

Highlight of the match his WL charged my Tempestor Prime and whiffed and the Prime took off his last wound with his power sword

Despite some gripes by all it was a fun and more relaxed event overall

I really enjoyed maelstrom (I'm not a fan of ITC missions, even though their current ones are the best thus far)

Hopefully they run it again next year with some minor revisions to keep it more in the spirit of "friendly"

Thanks for reading

[MithrilForge]

That was his hill indeed! I don't think was a game where the Shadowsword wasn't deployed in a statement position

Game 3 vs DW - WIN

His list had a little fire power with a bunch of lascannons (dred's, razorbacks, redemptor), but other than that there wasn't anything special except the Vindicare assassin.

I got first turned and nuked his redemptor and one of the dreads

He managed to take out my Baneblade in reponse with all the remaining lascannons and a couple of Frag cannon vets

He also took out my MoO with his Vindicare assassin because he could see a point of the servo skull I had attached to him...

So after that there was very little friendly left, especially since he'd already complained about my SS

Highlight of the match was my Callidus showing up T2 8" away from his Vindicare then rolling box cars to kill him in melee

He conceded around T3 because I was just on mop up duty with his infantry

I scored a 2 on my theme, because he "couldn't understand" how 3 "random" regiments would form a fighting force? While is force was clearly DW

He also later complained I had min/maxed my list. Same player was matched with the Castellan list final round and we played on tables next to each other. I cheekly pointed at that the Castellan list made my list look friendly and I got a salty death dagger no... ohwell

Round 4 vs UMs - WIN

This was probably my most fun and toughest match up of the whole event

I played a 12 yo kid who was there with their dad (turns out they live in a town not far from me)

The kid was playing mostly Primaris UM's with Calgar and bodyguard, his only AT was a 5 man Lascannon dev team and Hellblasters...

I worked hard not to table him by T2 and I almost lost my SS as a result, the kid almost gave up after T2, but I suggested he keep going as he had some VV's, Termies and Inceptors to come in

Geez they made their presence known! The same turn they arrived he nuked my SS (I only cast -1 to hit on it T2 after he did 12+ damage to it T1, he nuked it T3)

The terminators got close to my lines, the VV's took out my WL and the Inceptors started threatening my artillery. He also scored a bunch of points that turn as my cards turned cold again

I had to wipe out his VV's which were about to pounce on my artillery and he tanked 8 wounds on his 3++ stormshields from 2 basilisks (1 double shot) and my wyvren

At this point I was on the backfoot (I didn't actually want to lose but I wanted to give him a good game)

We ended up playing to T7 going back and forth from T5, I actually would have lost if it didnt go to 7, 6 if I was lucky.

It was a really fun match and over lunch the kid apparently kept saying to his dad it was the best game of 40k he had

Hopefully I see them both at a large gaming event I'm helping organise begining of August

Round 5 - Converted IK's - LOSS

Inevitably I play one of the 2 pure IK lists and on a table with 0 LoS blocking terrain and ruins

He deployed first, but I siezed my cards gave me a great opportunity to score 5pts T1 if I could nuke his WL in 1 go

I did 14 damage between my SS, overcharging plasmacutioner, 2 basilisks (1 twin linked and double shooting)...

So it was pretty much over from there I had hoped in the second turn to shoot and charge his IKs with the SS but it died T1 as the 3 Crusaders fired back

spent the next turn or two trying to get points where I could, but kept pulling defend objectives in his zone, I conceded in T4

At the end of the match he asked if I had fun to which my honest response was no, that a pure IK list in a friendly event was never going to be fun, not that he was a jerk of an opponent. He seemed surprised by it...

Highlight of the match his WL charged my Tempestor Prime and whiffed and the Prime took off his last wound with his power sword

Despite some gripes by all it was a fun and more relaxed event overall

I really enjoyed maelstrom (I'm not a fan of ITC missions, even though their current ones are the best thus far)

Hopefully they run it again next year with some minor revisions to keep it more in the spirit of "friendly"

Thanks for reading

Highlight points-

1. This is why i'm modelling my MoO on Cadian Kneeling legs crouched down with a vox phone to his ear yelling for fire Support!...as tiny as he can be

2. it shows your character man and im glad to see there are people like you still at tournaments, that game will be long remembered by that young man...in a good way too!

3. those knight conversions look cool but orky , I still don't understand people thinking their all knight list at a friendly tourney is cool... maybe one Knight....

anyway thanks for the good batrep read !!

Cheers, Mithril

Edited May 29, 2019 by mithrilforge

[duz_]

Doing something similar with my MoO did come to mind, but I figured something more heroic with flair

I didn't think many people would try to do that at a friendly without checking first. Apparently I was wrong. I do wish they'd say barrels, capes, random antennas don't count for LoS though.

 

Thx Mithril, I hope so too. Back home at the local GW we had a few younger kids that would show up regularly and I'd play against them. I'd do my best to encourage them and help them learn play. Reminded me of one of those games.

 

I would have been happy with zero Knights or LoWs :D

Let's see what happens next year

[WarriorFish]

Depends how dedicated you are. I'd have snapped it off and asked "can you see him now?" - two can play at that game :lol:;)

[Halfpint100]

Still waiting for that commissar line up Duz.... no pressure or anything.... but *cleans bolt pistol*

[thewarriorhunter]

So how is that knight army played, rules wise? They're converted 'orks' but do they use the knight codex?

[duz_]

Oh wait I did have something for you HP but not the full line up

Assembled the new commissars sometime over the last few weeks between constant travel. I think I'm up to week 6 of being somewhere other than home :ermm:

Disappointingly the Artel commissar is the wrong scale :(

The bionic Anvil commissar is kinda stout :/

Fortunately the female one seems correctly scaled.

Ahwell what can you do?

TWH he played them as IKs and never actually referred to them as Orks just converted

Edited May 29, 2019 by duz_

[Halfpint100]

Oh wait I did have something for you HP but not the full line up

Assembled the new commissars sometime over the last few weeks between constant travel. I think I'm up to week 6 of being somewhere other than home :ermm:

Disappointingly the Artel commissar is the wrong scale :(

The bionic Anvil commissar is kinda stout :/

Fortunately the female one seems correctly scaled.

Ahwell what can you do?

TWH he played them as IKs and never actually referred to them as Orks just converted

That artel one is huge! I see what you mean about the bionic one as well. The female one is definitely my favourite of those pictured

P.s The artel one could be used as an objective marker?

Edited May 29, 2019 by Halfpint100

[librisrouge]

I don't think that it was just the fact that they took pure IKs but that they both took great IK lists. Top caliber really. The kind of lists that the equivalent in other codicies would still be considered inappropriate for a "fun" event. Look at the individual lists:

 

You faced: 3 Crusaders and a Warden!

These are literally considered to be the best of the old school knights and many consider the crusader to be maybe the best in the codex now and certainly the best of the old school knights. And he took 3! Wow!

 

You didn't face: Castellan, 2 Crusaders and 2 Armigers

Wow, what a d-bag. And at a friendly event. This has all the problems of the first list but, hey, at least he took a castellan. Because those aren't amazing at all  Let me guess, it had Cawl's Wrath every game too. Armigers aren't anything to right home about but I'm guessing that they're there to fill out PLs.

 

You can take IKs to a friendly tournament but you should be filling your list with things like Paladins, Errants, armigers, and perceptors. Maybe, if you're willing to truly risk being that guy, a valiant. Crusaders, wardens, gallants, and castellans should just stay home.

Edited May 29, 2019 by librisrouge

[brother_b]

I’m pretty sure modeling a figure to have a servo skull or to be on a rock etc isn’t supposed to be used for line of sight. I know it’s true line of sight, but an antenna your rifle muzzle or something like that should not count. Also, I thought if you modeled your miniatures on a special base or something you could use a stand-in for targeting purposes. Did I make this stuff up?

 

Either way you were playing that guy and he would’ve complained more.

Edited May 29, 2019 by brother_b

[duz_]

HP, possibly? A weird one... :lol:
I'm not sure what to do, I was really excited to use him as a warlord :(

 

 

Let me guess, it had Cawl's Wrath every game too. 

 

Yup and the other IK's had the other relic weapons too 

 

brother_b, I am not aware of that unless it is a local or tournament circuit FAQ. 

[duz_]

Well I don't know when my schedule is going to return to "normal"
So after being rained out of playing tennis last night and chilling with the missus for a bit I snuck an hour or so of hobby in

I managed to get through another ~8ish Mordains, leaving with 5 more to go on my attempted blended layer to give some contrast and depth... :ermm:

Anyhow heres an example of what it looks like, I'm hoping its worth the effort! I still need to edge highlight the blue and then theres all the other details still to go

Upside is this method for batching painting 30 at a time hasn't been terrible. :D

C&C welcome! :)

[WarriorFish]

Looks good to me, can see it in particular on the cap :tu:

[thewarriorhunter]

Batch painting 30 at once? Kill me now. I struggle to do 5 at a time.

 

Your blending/shading does look good and I think it'll be worth it once you've got a board full of them. It's not obnoxious and does a great job of subtly conveying the depth of the model.

[duz_]

Thx

 

TWH so far it hasn't been too painful especially because there's only a few minutes required per model with how I'm doing it

 

So having competed the last 5 blend of Caledor I started highlighting with Calgar. Not 100% certain that was the right colour but it was the best of what I had on hand so I'm going with it... :ermm:

[MrZakalwe]

~snip~

You can take IKs to a friendly tournament but you should be filling your list with things like Paladins, Errants, armigers, and perceptors. Maybe, if you're willing to truly risk being that guy, a valiant. Crusaders, wardens, gallants, and castellans should just stay home.

 

That's an ITC problem rather than a knight thing- Knights do pretty badly with the CA 2018 missions (there's one they pretty much can't score as it requires troops choices to hold objectives and tabling doesn't win the game so it's almost impossible for them to even score a draw) and don't require any special preparation or army composition to deal with.

 

With the CA2018 missions they are very much better off played as a supporting faction. 

[duz_]

It was CA2018 maelstrom missions

 

Can't score points when you're tabled or conceded which is how most their games went bar 1.

 

Also having to "play to the mission" in a friendly sound somewhat tedious

[MrZakalwe]

Ahh I don't play Maelstrom so no idea how to beat them there. In Eternal War guard squads can normally keep them off the objectives long enough for it to be impossible for them to catch up on points and even in a friendly I love that moment the opposition realises they've lost the game when they feel so close to victory.

[duz_]

Maelstrom is one of my favourite ways to play the game

Really forces you to be in your toes and balance out the risk reward as you never know which way the cards will go

 

 

Meanwhile I've included my thoughts of the Emperors Wrath detachment here

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/356252-few-questions-about-vigilus-detachments/?p=5326478&do=findComment&comment=5326478