The Sanguine Eagles - A Tale of Gamers Project

[Halandaar]

Whoops! Been quite a while since I posted here last, although progress has been ongoing. I've also managed to play 2 games since the last post, which I think is more than I've managed in any system, with any army over the past 5 years. So, in order;

The forces from my previous posts were combined with a Rhino; first attempt at weathering vehicles. Think I overdid it around the exhaust vents but quite happy with the overall look.

The full 500 point force looked like this:

So, onto battle!

The first engagement was a 3-way, "re-learn the rules without too much worrying about objectives or victory points" type affair, with my BAs facing a small AdMech force and a Nurgle-aligned Chaos force, as predicted. Despite forgetting to use various special rules here and there, the Death Company predictably made a nuisance of themselves and munched through a squad of Chaos Marines. I used my Rhino with the Heavy-Flamer Tactical squad to make an almost-Razorback, and used it to torch some AdMech chaps. I also managed to get lucky and shoot down the Chaos Dark Apostle purely with Bolter fire. Things ended with a big messy melee between Tactical Marines, Skitarii and Chaos Marines. I think if we'd been counting I might just have edged this game out, thanks to Slay the Warlord and First Blood. Anyway, it was quite enjoyable to get back into the swing of things and plot my next moves...

So as I'd previously discussed, I went for a Librarian, Dreadnought and Drop Pod for my next 250 points. I plonked a Jump Pack on the Librarian (it's magnetised) so I could fly him around with the Death Company to add punch if required. The Dreadnought has interchangeable arms and front panels, so can be kitted out as a Death Company, Furioso or Librarian as required.

They turned out like this:

Librarian

Drop Pod

Dreadnought

Leavinbg a 750 Point force looking like this:

For the second game, it was just going to be the Eagles against Team Nurgle. I already knew some Nurgle bikers were coming to the party, so I opted for the Frag Cannon Furioso to try and shred a few of them nice and early. There was also a Helbrute to consider, so I opted for the Meltagun on the Dreadnought as well.

This time things were a bit more formal; we randomised between Dawn and Maelstrom of War, and ended up playing the Relic mission. I opted for Biomancy for the Librarian and ended up with Warp Speed. I opted to deploy second so I could try and set up in such a way as to counter the main threats as I saw them. Namely, T6 bikers getting hold of the Relic and being a pain to shift.

I over-committed against the Bikers in the beginning, using both the Deep Striking Fragioso and the Death Company to get rid of them. The DC wiped them out just on their Chainsword attacks; I didn't even get to Power Weapons or Characters. This left the DC sitting in the open to take a full round of shooting, with the DC Chaplain receiving an instant-death Multi-Melta shot to the face, and I then lost more to Overwatch when they hit another squad the following turn. A supporting charge from the Dreadnought helped kill off the remainder, and I managed to face down the Dark Apostle with my Librarian to secure Slay the Warlord.

In the back field, one of my Tactical Squads managed to get tank-shocked by a Chaos Rhino into a compromising position on the edge of the board when I had them marching towards the Relic, which was unhelpful to say the least. The other squad was pinned by their own exploding Rhino and subsequently shot to bits by Chaos Marines before I was able to do anything useful with them.

Being blocked off by the enemy Rhino from firing on anything useful, I opted to charge the first Tactical Squad at it and slap it with a Melta Bomb, which successfully blew it up, only to take one of my guys with it. My Librarian and sole surviving Death Company Marine were killed by Plasma volleys, and my Fragioso took a Melta shot to the arse, dutifully exploding all over the nearby Relic.

With only 3 Tactical Marines left on the board my options for victory were limited, but they had managed to end up a bit closer to the Relic than everything else on the field (Hellbrute and 7 Chaos Marines); I opted to try and capture the Relic for the victory points and if possible, move it into my opponents deployment zone for one more. Terrain was blocking the Chaos Marines from firing and so the only immediate threat was the Helbrute; a single lucky Krak Grenade managed to stun it (!!!) and I felt for sure that would be me in the clear. I failed to realise the Hellbrute's ridiculous table though, which it proceeded to roll an "ignores shaken/stunned" result on, and then stamped my guys into the ground next turn.

Result; 6-7 loss. BOOOOOOOOOO. Oh well, lessons were learned.

For the next 250 point expansion, I know the opposing force is gaining another 3 bikers and a Predator, at least. I'm having to make do with spending no money and scavenging in my pile of grey bits to come up with something useful.

I've managed to find the bits for an Assault Squad (no jump packs, so I'm thinking Meltacide in the Drop Pod to remove the Predator as early as possible), a Multi-Melta Attack Bike, and a MM/Heavy Flamer Land Speeder. It's a bit Melta-heavy, but up until this point the only real anti-tank I have in the force is a couple of Melta Bombs, an Inferno Pistol on the Chaplain, and I guess the Dreadnought in general. Being able to remove the Hellbrute and Predator relatively easily seems like a good thing.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Halandaar

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive.

[CaptainHelion]

Really liking that Red and White combo. Looks good!

[TrawlingCleaner]

Love the White and red dude, can I ask how you did the white?

I might also have to steal that Libby idea, is it the Deathwatch Blood ravens model?

[Halandaar]

Love the White and red dude, can I ask how you did the white?

I might also have to steal that Libby idea, is it the Deathwatch Blood ravens model?

 

Thanks very much! The Librarian is indeed the Deathwatch chap, with the head carefully cut away and replaced with a Sanguinary Guard Death Mask with the crest cut off.

 

The white is fairly straightforward as I wanted it to come across as quite dirty;

• Corax White spray
• Seraphim Sepia wash
• Pallid Wych Flesh drybrush
• Ceramite White drybrush
• Eshin Grey & Rhinox Hide sponged on for chipping/dirt

[Pearson73]

Really liking the colour scheme.

[Halandaar]

Another long overdue update! Since the last update I've completed a few more units, which are:

• 5 man "Meltacide" Assault Squad
• Attack Bike with Multi-Melta
• Land Speeder with Multi-Melta and Heavy Flamer
• 5 man Bike Squad with Combi-Grav and 2 Grav Guns
• Librarian on Bike

Now as you can tell from their loadouts, those units were built with 7th edition rules in mind. Our next game (at 1250 points) will be played with 7th edition rules as we haven't all gotten new indexes yet, so they will remain effective for that at least, but after that we're intending to move on to 8th which may mean I need to reconsider the armaments.

I've got a handful of questionable images of some of these guys, which are below!

Assault Squad & Land Speeder

Bike Squad & Librarian on Bike

Librarian on Bike

My next move will be to paint up a bunch of Terminators I have lying around. Seeing as 8th looks to have given them a nice boost I don't feel like fielding them is going to be such a handicap, especially in view of the fact that my Meltacide squad has almost doubled in cost thanks to the new price of Drop Pods! Looks like putting Jump Packs back on them to give them built-in Deep Strike would be a better option than the Drop Pod now.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Halandaar

[TrawlingCleaner]

I've totally stolen your scheme for my own Blood Angels. A couple of months ago I was trying to come up with a scheme and settle on a mix of blood angels and white scars, had a look on this forum to see if anyone else had something similar that I could use as inspriation, and found yours. Without even realising it, I'd stoeln your scheme.

 

Anyways, really liking what you've done so far. Keep up the good work!

[Halandaar]

I've totally stolen your scheme for my own Blood Angels. A couple of months ago I was trying to come up with a scheme and settle on a mix of blood angels and white scars, had a look on this forum to see if anyone else had something similar that I could use as inspiration, and found yours. Without even realising it, I'd stolen your scheme.

 

Anyways, really liking what you've done so far. Keep up the good work!

 

Haha, that's okay because I'm going to steal your awesome Gravis Captain conversion in return!  Looking forward to seeing more of your BA's in future.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Biker Librarian.

[Halandaar]

Well, after the great Photobucket revoking of 3rd party hosting rights I've painstakingly reconstructed the thread. Annoying, but probably for the best to have the images hosted somewhere non-crappy!

There is a little new content too, so...

Quickly painted up a squad of Terminators for the final game of 7th Edition! They managed to land the killing blows on a Daemon Prince and a Hellbrute, so they actually more than paid for themselves over the course of the game. The game itself ended in victory as well, which was nice!

In 8th Edition it'll be small steps; we're going back to the beginning with another 500 point game to make sure we've a full handle on the rules before expanding again up to the levels we're at now.