A Mordian march to glory

[duz_]

Some hobby progress for the weekend so far

Mordians are almost complete just waiting on the bases to dry so I can wash and dry brush them

Started on the models which I love but hate to paint my scions

And worked a bit more on my new colour scheme for my cadians. This will be my artillery commander for my next tournament

Even the cadian officers lack the detail and flare of the old mordians... :(

[our_baz]

That dusky blue on he Cadian is really nice. What's your recipe?

[duz_]

Russ grey + drakenhof nightshade

 

Was kinda tricky there was 3 different washes on the model and because of the colours they can all have a big effect on the final look

 

Fortunately I was able to apply the 3 without going out of the lines ;)

[Commander Cutlet]

Im not sure if anyone else has mentioned this but Victorian miniatures do as set called 'Tannenberg fusiliers' that look very Mordian if you are having trouble finding more of them.

And i have to say they look great, really inspiring to get my own guard up and running

[duz_]

cheers

 

yeh I am aware of the miniatures, tbh I do have quite a few Mordians probably enough to even field one of those ridiculous Emperors Shield formations (which I have been contemplating giving a shot lately...)

 

Unfortunately I also have the same number of cadians which I'm trying to spruce up as best I can with a new paint job without going full camo, it seems though that the only way for them to look semi decent is in some kind of fatigue pattern which Im trying to avoid given its already so prevalent (not that it doesnt look good I just like to experiment with colour schemes when I can)

 

Definitely should start getting up a guard army! Theyre plenty of fun to play :)

[duz_]

Some hobby progress for the week

Finished basing my artillery commander admittedly basing does help these cadians stand out a bit more

Considering redoing the shoulder pads as the wash dried weirdly

Also got through my scions

I just need the wash to dry so I can finish the layers and highlights

Also got a second taroux painted up

Geez these things take some time... I can do a chimera or LR in about a 1/3 of the time ... must remember to glue the ladders on after painting next time as I keep bending them whilst painting ...

I at least didn't glue the bull bar until afterwards this time! ;)

I still have 1 taurox, manticore and basilisk to paint for my next tournament in 3? weeks

I'm actually a bit concerned I wont get through them all before then as I'm going away for 10 days inbetween

Might my first tournament where I only make a 3 colour minimum ...

But at least my mordians will all be painted. ;)

[elmo]

Nice work duz_ 

 

The Scions are eye catching and a nice colour choice - works well.

[duz_]

So the tournament I had been preparing for was last Sunday

It was a team event, the other players in my team (4 of us total) had Blood Angles, Daemons and Eldar/Harlequins

We did pretty poorly overall unfortunately, the previous events had been a bit more balanced but this time everyone brought the cheese

Each team played 4 games, with each player versing off against another player from each team per round

The basic round down for me as is

The list (1500pts):

Emperors Wrath Artillery Formation:

• CCS w/ Chimera
  • 4x vets w/ ccw + laspistol
  • Commander w/ volkovs pimp stick
  • Enginseer
• 1x Basilisk
• 2x Wyvrens
• 1x Manticore

AM CAD:

• Lord Commissar
• Vet squad w/ Taurox
  • 1x Vox caster
  • 1x HFlamer
• Infantry Platoon
  • PCS w/ Taurox
    • 1x Vox Caster
  • 1x Infantry Squad w/ Taruox
    • 1x flamer
    • 1x Vox Caster
  • 2x Infantry Squad
    • 2x flamer

MT CAD:

• CCS
  • 3x Plasma Gun
  • 1x Vox Caster
• 1x 5 man MT Squad w/ Taroux Prime (Battle cannon / autocannon)
  • 1x Vox Caster
  • 2x Meltas
• 1x 5 man MT Squad
  • 1x Vox Caster
  • 2x Meltas

The idea being that the 3 Taurox and Prime are all obsec and can run around grabbing objectives, the AM CCS stays next to the basilisk and manticore to be safe and issue orders with volkovs pimp stick

the blob bubble wraps the artillery with the LC to anchor them

the vets were essentially a tax, originally it was an AM allied detachment but I realised even if I made my MT's primary detachment it was still illegal

I should have given this unit dual flamers instead of 1 HF, ohwell next time

The artillery does it thing blasting stuff away, the wyvrens generally sat by themselves to spread out target selection for the enemy and they generally didnt need any of the orders (8 small pie plates is fun to place)

The scions (also obsec) were there to jump into back field to take out any large threats or to grab objects with DS and MTC

All great in theory then came the match ups...

Round 1

Dawn of war deployment

Daemons against one of the states best players (2nd tournament in a row Ive had him as my first match up...)

the 1 out of 4 match ups i did not want against this team the others i would have been able to handle

He had a void shield to avoid alpha strikes, faetweaver and screamers of death with a 2++ re-rollable...

I had first turn i was able to take out faetweaver 1st turn ID'ing him with a manticore shot

took out a couple of void shields and no objects I could grab

it was pretty much game over after that

he emerged from his void sheild ran down the field and despite shooting my entire army at his blob of screamers I only took out 1 and they just started eating my tanks and guards men

I tried to play the objectives which meant flat-outting my wyvrens to the other end of the board for line breaker and scoring an objective end of game! but he still managed to destroy both and grab the objective they were holding...

Major loss...

Round 2

Dawn of war

Tyranids w/ 2 flyrants

This match up I thought I had in the bag

I managed to grab the relic turn two and held it for the end of the game luckily for me i rolled for the WL trait that gives me +1 to cover saves in ruins so my PCS on the last turn hunkered down in a ruin with a 2+ cover save and only lost 2 models to hold the relic

unfortunately that was enough (yet again)

i didnt kill a single flyrant having no AA although I did take a few wounds of with my tauroxes

annoyingly he had 3 units with single models left on the table at the end which would not die and i had other threats to deal with to completely finish them off

also given the number of transports I had i conceded more kill points than I expected

so although I won the primary i lost both secondary and tertiary badly

Major loss

Round 3

Vanguard strike

This was against GK's i out numbered him almost 5 to 1

I also had more mobility than him, my opponent played fairly tactfully though

he had first turn and managed to box me in with his dreadknights and rhinos

i did not draw any achievable object maelstrom cards and held my taurox back to try and take out the rhinos and dreadknights

however due to my lack of AP2 weapons (he took out my plasma CCS first turn and my meltas were too far away to counter) i wasnt able to take out 2 dreadknights and a librarian and GKT squad with (modified) invisibility

bad maelstrom cards and large losses saw me lose badly again

the only upside was that I was able to take out his lone librarian (after a lot of saturated fire power from everything i had left taking out the GKTs) with a rapid fire volley from the chimera lasgun array!

At this point i was fairly demoralised and it was onto round 4

my team mates hadn't faired much better we were duking it out for wooden spoon (worst showing for all of us to date)

Round 4

Hammer and anvil (YES PRAISE THE EMPEROR)

vs ORKs!

So this was the complete opposite to the other 3 games, I felt bad for the guy

Being vanguard strike I lined all my artillery up against the back line and blob squad too (as he had an ork which can outflank from any table edge they choose including your deployment zone!)

So having denied this I set my taurox close to the centre line to grab objectives and stay in the 48" range

He counter deployed and I went first

it was game over after first turn almost i had taken out 2/3 of his trukks his transport stompa was stuck slowly moving forward from near the back of the deployment zone (he had deployed quick defensively which didnt make much sense seeing as most of my artillery could cover the entire board)

Each turn I took out more of his boyz and he never managed to get into assault range of my back line to the point that I started advancing my men!

He did have 2 dakka jets which did manage to take out 20 of my blob squad leaving only the LC standing in the middle of the hill staring defiantly back at the pilot

Major win

Thoughts overall

The list I took I knew would struggle to be ultra competitive i took it to see if I could compete with it

Turns out that was a no... I had banked on scoring more maelstrom objectives with my tauroxes per turn than what I actually drew and the lack of AP2/3 really hurt against the GK's

Also the additional transports just meant easy KP's for my opponent usually negating any points I had scored with them

The artillery formation was fun to play with, but you need to factor in a CAD of guard to bubble wrap it which makes it more expensive than what it is

The scions as usual did well at being a suicide squad and DS in taking an objective and then taking out a high value unit a good 90pt investment for a guard army, I still prefer to run them as MT's in anything more than 1 squad though

Going forward I may stop taking guard as my primary tournament army or if I do I will be taking Knights as allies again

I still think they are great to play in a social setting and I have done well with them

but there is no real guard "cheese" list to combat what else is out there

[Arkaniss]

Cheers for the batreps I enjoyed going through them and the many pictures too. It's always great to see a well painted and cohesive army on the table :)

 

Sounds like you had some bad luck with missions and objectives and if most other people were bringing tightly crafted lists too then that wouldn't have helped. Maybe you can tweak your lists to have backup AP2 weapons? That might help giving you some spares in-case things go wrong!

 

I did like seeing so much artillery though, that's something I've always wanted to do.

[WarriorFish]

Unfortunate that it turned out to be a beardathon, they're boring even when you can match them. At least you put a good fight in and your army looks great on the table top, and ending on a good win is a nice way to round off an otherwise poor day.

[duz_]

Cheers for the batreps I enjoyed going through them and the many pictures too. It's always great to see a well painted and cohesive army on the table

 

Sounds like you had some bad luck with missions and objectives and if most other people were bringing tightly crafted lists too then that wouldn't have helped. Maybe you can tweak your lists to have backup AP2 weapons? That might help giving you some spares in-case things go wrong!

 

I did like seeing so much artillery though, that's something I've always wanted to do.

 

Thanks!

 

Normally I bring Punisher Pask + Plasmacutioner for AP2 duties

However this one I guess I was anticipating more battle companies and going up against eldar and horde armies

the artillery company would work wonders on jet bikes and warp spiders w/ TL ignores cover AP3/AP4

unfortunately that wasnt the case this time

 

I probably could have dropped the scion CAD and taken Pask and co instead

However I was trying to leverage the vox/TL angle

As it turns out the TL option isnt really that useful given the 18" range from the vox casters

I found most the time I was near LOS anyways and even when I did have the option to TL i generally didnt or if I did nothing really changed

 

Learn more each time, I didnt get to play test this army as much as I would have liked before lists were due

[Cap'm Heckus]

I love the simple elligance of those red and white tanks. The basilisk's cannon could use some contrasting colors but the paint scheme on that red and white Taurox actually makes want a Taurox. Well done, sir.

[duz_]

Thanks!

I always try to follow the philosophy of less is more when it comes to deciding colours

 

The manticore and basilisk didn't get finished in time so they're only 3 colour minimum in those photos ;)

I need to finish them both off but I have an intercontinental move coming up so all that will be on the back burner for the next month or so

 

I know I'm in the minority but I actually like the taroux models

 

I just wish I'd remember not to glue the bull bar and ladders on until after I finish painting

[duz_]

So took a break from painting my guard

Painted up my assassins for the next tournament ill be heading to

Guard will be on the back burner this time ill be taking my GKs

[Arkaniss]

Nice! Normally the Callidus is always painted black so white is certainly different. I like it! :)

[WarriorFish]

They look great, the white/bone on the Callidus is different but very nice. Looks like you need to properly close your Vindicare's plinth though so it doesn't dry out!

[duz_]

Haha cheers WF! ;)

 

Yeh I guess she's like avatar meets Lara Croft (and partially I only had corax white undercoat around)

I tried to see if there was any other similarly painted ones out there and google didn't come back with much

 

I didn't want to end up with 4 all black assassins

 

Even the vindicare I struggled to add colour and contrast to without it looking kinda weird (ie not particularly stealthy)

A light eshin grey dry brush on solid black with agrax earth shade always helps a bit too

 

At least with the callidus she's a shape shifter so base colour isn't so much of an issue

 

I'm fairly happy how they both turned out

Have a game tomorrow to see how they do in practice!

Callidus is for centurions and vindicare is going to be my anti tank and apothecary slayer (I have 2 imperial knights if they don't work. ;) )

[WarriorFish]

Good luck, let us know how it goes :) My Vindicare was more use popping tanks than anything else it seemed, but a lot depends on your opponent.

[duz_]

So my friend brought 3 rhinos a vindicator and land raider to the party

 

The vindicare does work against all them! Especially the rhinos guaranteed to glance and pen on a 2+

 

With a decent chance of 1 shotting a land raider

 

I think they're better as AT and apothecary hunting then WL slaying

 

Which is good because that's why I brought him

 

Callidus managed to hold up thunder hammer storm shield terminators for 2 turns before being insta-deathed

[WarriorFish]

My Vindicare has yet to successfully snipe an apothecary :lol: Sounds like they did quite well though, will you be using them again?

[duz_]

I haven't had the opportunity to try and snipe and apothecary yet but

I'm hoping when I do his 2+/4+ to hit 2+ AP2 wound roll -2 look out sir + ignores cover doesn't fail! Haha

 

For their combined 290 pts I do like what they bring to the table

Especially for my GKs (which I wont go into detail here)

I think ill lock them into my list

 

I also think ill trying to bring the callidus into my guard lists more too

 

My only complaint with them is that they don't have eternal warrior so its pretty easy to tap them out especially with only a 4++

[duz_]

So an update for my Mordian forces...

They continue to travel through the warp en-route to my new theatre. Based on their estimates they should arrive be the end up this month.
I look forward to having them in their full dress uniforms filling out my ranks.

The regiment that had been stationed here previously contained a small detachment of Mordians. When they heard our battle group was arriving the remaining Mordians remained to join our ranks.
[ie. I scored another 10 man squad of Mordains w/ lascannon and GL off ebay by accident (or at least thats what I tell my wife). I need to strip them back and paint them up too join my ranks]

In the meanwhile the rest of the battle group has been carrying out maintenance and repairs whilst they await their battle brothers.

Most recently the Deathstrike (Manticore) that the Emperor graciously gifted us has finally had an opportunity to don our colours.

I am sure the Emperor will be most pleased with our efforts:

As mentioned previously I have been attending my most recent tournaments with my GK's which is why this is thread has been somewhat quiet of late. Plus having moved country and having to re-start my paint collection whilst job searching is somewhat limiting.

I am proud to say that the last 2 events I attended with my GK's although I placed roughly where I normally do (maybe even slightly higher) every time I saw a guardsman army I felt left out that I hadn't brought mine along.

So I may be going back to my guard army again once my Mordians show up. If I'm going to field my guardsmen I want them to look good. ;)

As for the Manticore and Deathstrike build. I think going forward I will be using the Deathstrike. Although its only 1 shot and not until T2 at the earliest I found the Manticore underwhelming. AP4 is a real limiter especially against armour and 2+ saves. My plan with the Deathstrike when I field it is to try and fire it T2 (most likely on a 3+ as it will be on field and not moved). Once it has launched the Emperors splendid wrath I shall use it as a mobile objective grabber and battle ram ;)

Next up I have to finish my Scions then its either a LRBT, Hellound or Basilisk next. I think I'll finish up the LBRT because I want to try running the Emperors Armoured Fist formation.

[The Mad Hermit]

I've loved seeing all the old (and old school) Mordian minis.

 

Great thread.

[duz_]

So I finally finished my Scions after having them mostly unpainted for 2 years since I got back into the hobby.

Not including my Knights (because there's only 2 of them) this will be my first fully painted force! I'm fairly happy with how they're turned out, although I did experiment with some lighter shades of flesh with them and they came out paler than expected. Should have stuck with what I knew especially when I didn't grab the fleshshade wash either. Ohwell you can't notice when they're on the table.

To round them off I'd love one of those start collecting boxes and another Taurox. I'd probably make a 2nd battle cannon and a ML one too. I'd also pair the gatling cannon one with some HSVGs as opposed it's current autocannons.

[WarriorFish]

Well done duz, that's quite an accomplishment and one few can claim! :D I'm looking forward to seeing you add to the force :tu: