Raptors 3rd and 10th company

[SanguinaryGuardsman]

Nice job on the banners... did you use FW etched brass for the Raptors insignia?

[MajorNese]

Never had etched brass. All insignias are partially casted from an old rhino door set (which is now OOP). While not fully hardened, that can even be fitted to rounded surfaces.

[GreyCrow]

That is some pretty bad ass painting and army you've got there !

Kudos !

 

Will steal your blending technique for sure ! :D

[Race Bannon]

:wub:

 

In that Astartes kinda way ...

[duz_]

Major that is awesome!

Good luck with your models and a display like that I suspect you will do very well! Im glad we dont share a local store. Not that I managed to get mt RG ready this year for AoP despite best intentions.

[thewarriorhunter]

Never had etched brass. All insignias are partially casted from an old rhino door set (which is now OOP). While not fully hardened, that can even be fitted to rounded surfaces.

 

I've got my eyes on a set of RG Rhino doors to do this exact thing. I don't ever plan on using the doors but I do plan on making molds and casting the insignia to apply to other vehicles/terrain.

[MajorNese]

AoP was awesome. We had quite a few good boards (see link below), which is always inspiring. As far as awards go, I won Monsters and Machines fair and square, most other categories had a few votes, but not enough for the category's first place. Out of memory: First army went to the Templars, best terrain to the Iron Hands (including bluetooth speakers hidden in the tanks), best painting to the Wolves. The latter was quite unforseeable, with many voters being torn between 4 or 5 armies.

 

Armies on Parade

 

Now the question is...which army next year? I'm actually tempted to inflate the whole Necromunda thing into a full IG militia army...

[duz_]

Now the question is...which army next year? I'm actually tempted to inflate the whole Necromunda thing into a full IG militia army...

Do it!! :D :tu:

[Race Bannon]

I also support the IG idea.

[MajorNese]

 

Now the question is...which army next year? I'm actually tempted to inflate the whole Necromunda thing into a full IG militia army...

Do it!!

 

Well, after seeing the sprues...not going to happen. One sprue per gang, 5 different torsos. A full army of that would look like Attack of the Clones.

 

But I'll do probably every gang. Test new painting techniques like weathering, and now that I have the space to use an airbrush, I'll get one in one or two months.

[MajorNese]

My internet is back, picdump incoming...

 

The second Inceptor squad. Got tired of the curved sticks breaking off, now I use standard flight stands and drill holes into the guys.

 

 

My first squad of assault hellblasters, painted for a local tournament. So far they haven't been as overwhelming as several people have promised, but we'll see.

 

More bikers. A second squad of scout bikers (with stormbolter sergeant and at 12", they remind me of my old IG's shooting phase), fully magnetized captain, and apothecary with Teeth of Terra (eviscerator).

 

Devastators. Really resilient and useful when Issodeepstriking into a ruin and just gravving at things.

 

And last, 3 new HQs. A fully magnetized captain/Lt., based on the moritat model. Then, what I call Issodon Prime, the beefed-up version of our CM. Figured the old model looked a bit small compared to all the primaris I've been building. And a power armour apothecary as retinue, now that I actively use Issodon.

 

[duz_]

Looking great! :D

[Race Bannon]

The dude with the skull helmet ... oh, I am soooooooooooo stealing that idea!  :wub:

[WAR]

Awesome Man Edited January 5, 2018 by war009

[MajorNese]

Well, last minute, one slot for the tournament got free, which means I'll field my Raptors again on saturday. Which will be a fun list, featuring a whole lot of power armour, and only few things even considered medium units. We'll see how it goes...I'll post detail pics later, need sleep first.

 

[jpwyrm]

That's a huge amount of Astartes! Good luck at the tournament, make Corax proud.

[WAR]

Good luck Man!

[MajorNese]

Well, the tournament went a lot better than expected, which included a bit of luck in matchmaking. In the end, I placed 3rd place out of 18, a lot better than expected. Especially when considering the more tournament-oriented lists of my local colleagues (quad leviathan/quad whirlwind, Dark Eldar lance/transport spam).

 

My list, sorted by field placement:

-Issodon

-Lieutenant, Primarch's Wrath

-10 devs, 4x grav, cherub

-10 sternguard

(the issobomb)

 

-captain (storm bolter)

-10 devs, 3x las, 1x HB, cherub

-10 devs, 3x las, 1x HB, cherub

-3x2 tarantulas, heavy bolters (deep strike prevention, backfield clearance dakka)

(backfield)

 

-5 scouts (real estate)

-5 intercessors, bolt rifles, nade launcher (midfield skirmishers)

-6 intercessors, bolt rifles, nade, power sword (SftS board control/skirmishers)

-2x3 scoutbikers, storm bolter (midfield distraction/chaff clearance)

-custodes biker captain (firefighter, midfield objectives)

 

 

First game (maelstrom) was against Tau. An army I only once played against this edition, the night before the tournament, which helped out a lot (thanks, Tzeentch). After clearing ghosts and kroot first round, I dropped stuff second turn to box in the opponent. Most of his dakka (except for drones) stayed back too far, so the kills were rather meager. At least the boltercessors, scouts, sternguard and Issodon (cover, >12") soaked up an army's worth of shooting for 2 rounds, and I won by a lot by holding 4/6 objectives. 17:3 tournament points (calculated by VP difference chart) for me.

 

Second game against Death Guard, Eternal War (Ascension), with a rather inexperienced player. 3 objective markers along the center, characters holding them give more VP each round. I was hard pressed by Morty and lost my Issobomb squads killing him, but his other midfield units were manageable, so I shot all of them off the objectives. Everything not a character was then blown to hell by 2 scorpiusses and a double C-Beam dread. The custodes biker, being untargetable and killing anyone advancing on the objective, single-handedly won me the game by VP. Again, 17:3.

 

Last game against Ultras and assassins. Girlyman, 2 stormravens, leviathan, Tigurius, TFC, some scouts, and all assassins except for the vindicare. This one didn't exactly go as planned, my midfield skirmishers got decimated by the leviathan/stormravens. Rerolling everything, those were just brutal. Tiggy hiding a stormraven each round was an issue, I mostly shot them down to hit on 5+/6+ at range, and they still killed stuff. The issobomb didn't work as planned, the sternguard killing the TFC (less dead units each turn) and grav half-killing a raven, but all of my Issobomb units killed in 2 turns. Nonetheless, it dented the firepower and made the opponent turn around instead of overrunning my backfield, which is why I survived with only 6 power armour dudes on turn 6. Lost at 8:12, but still got enough points for 3rd place.

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on our units:

Intercessors are invaluable, and definitely our best midfield skirmishers. At 2W and 2+ in cover, it takes serious firepower to shift them, which either included an army's worth of small arms (Tau) or the big guns (scorpius, leviathans), much to the frustration of of the Tau player. Against individual mid-tier units, they usually manage to survive for a while, and increase my footprint significantly. The damage output is meager, but so is their points cost. A rate of 2 intercessors and 1 scout squad worked wonders today, with 1 intercessor squad SftSing for some first-turn midfield clearance charges, and the scouts keeping areas of the board clear for Issododrops.

 

The issobomb never worked as intended. Mostly dropped after the first enemy shooting phase, the grav devs mostly replaced the first dead dev squad, claiming their objective and clearing the midfield until they are killed too. Sternguard were hilarious against Tau, good against morty, and a TFC-killing distraction against Ultras. Issodon himself is boss in sniping smaller but vital units like distant markers reliably, or dropping a fricking stormraven because screw it, dice lo vult. Not a concentrated issobomb like in previous games, but restoring footprint, rerouting enemy units and clearing midfield competition was definitely worth it. The boss himself was only killed once, by a stormraven and the leviathan hosing him with everything they had, a lot of firepower that couldn't hit my backfield this way.

 

Tarantulas were fun. Not many wasted points putting them into the way of any deep strikers, and stuck around long enough to prevent most backfield deep striking. Lots of not-too-shabby shots meant they damaged any target by weight of fire, and automated targeting meant they kept backfield/midfield free of smaller stuff, so the devs could concentrate on the bigger stuff further away. Bonus points for shooting the Eversor to bitz while it tried to dismantle the sentry guns in CC.

 

Scoutbikers were fun too. Killing dozens of kroot in one phase, killing a third of morty by simple number of shots and Issodon's advice bubble, and killing the squishy midfield units before they can reach an objective, or doing turn 1 charges on Tiggy. The bikers always died rather soon, but they definitely had considerable impact and distraction.

[Race Bannon]

Hold up ... Gman, Tigurius, and assassins?

 

Someone is compensating :P

[MajorNese]

Hold up ... Gman, Tigurius, and assassins?

 

Someone is compensating

Considering those playing smurfs around here, guess that's common.

 

Assassins didn't do much. Eversor killed a single marine and soaked up some fire, the sneaky one died by spare backfield bolters, only the anti psyker one was really annoying by only ever getting hit on 6s.

[MajorNese]

...and some photos of the last minute tournament units. 10 sternguard, and a custodes/primaris captain.

 

[Race Bannon]

HOLD EVERYTHING!

 

Are those Deathwatch torsos with standard Tactical marine arms?!?!

 

The answer will affect my wallet immediately.  Gentle truths are needed.

[duz_]

That looks amazing!

 

The black and grey bike looks awesome too! Damn Custodes being so gold

[MajorNese]

HOLD EVERYTHING!

 

Are those Deathwatch torsos with standard Tactical marine arms?!?!

 

The answer will affect my wallet immediately.  Gentle truths are needed.

Deathwatch torsos will fit any regular marine bitz. It's just MK8 instead of MK5/6/7, not primaris scale. Just take the Start Collecting box, it's got 10 marines (2 DW boxes), just like the regular SC marine box (1 tac box), as well as the VenDread and a convertible character. Lots and lots of nice bitz...

 

In this case, the bolters were the only thing requiring repositioning the arms, as they're custodes Sagittarum upgrade bitz, and have a different scale.

[Race Bannon]

Thank you, MajorNese.  Very inspirational! :tu:

 

My wallet hates you btw.