Ulthwé march back to war, to escalation league and beyond!

[Magos Takatus]

Here's the store photographs of our game.

[Evil Eye]

Some absolutely stellar paintjobs there! Also love to see the full collection of Avatars on display there.

[Magos Takatus]

I've recently resumed airbrushing my Jetbikes. I grabbed an old Warhammer Fantasy Necrosphinx head to use as a statue head. I grabbed some of my Scale 75 paints and am quite happy with the result.

 

 

I can't wait until this is completed and bearing down on my opponent. They will probably be horribly gunned down but it'll look fantastic. 

 

[Urkh]

With so many pointy jetbikes, I here by dub this, "death by a thousand stings."

Edited April 26, 2023 by Urkh

[The Yncarne]

More bikes than a Ross Hagen double-feature there Magos. 

[Magos Takatus]

Every spear needs a speartip... 

The probably won't make it into the Escalation League roster but they will be painted up to add more mobility and close combat punch to future army lists of mine. I've also got some old half-finished Vypers that could be helpful as well.

[Magos Takatus]

Here's the update for May's phase in the league.

 

So this is my post for the 1250point list. I've made custom bases for the jetbikes so I can magnetise them into my storage box. My heavy support entry for this month is my unit of War Walkers. They have been lurking in my army for a few months but this time they are turning up en masse and they are wielding Bright Lance's so I can crack armour from a safe distance. I have added three Windriders to the list for a second fast attack choice. They will hopefully give me both mobility and flexibility. That's about it for this month's summary.

 

 

 

I will be playing a game this week on Wednesday. After that I need to work out what's going in my 1500 point list. Back to Battlescribe!

[TrawlingCleaner]

Your army is turning out to be absolutely ace, Magos. The Jetbikes in particular are lovely, great work!

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you, TrawlingCleaner, I appreciate the feedback. I have three more bikes to paint up for next week's game and a tank to include. Speaking of tanks, Here are the bases I created. They may not look like much, but I am proud to have sculpted them myself in Blender and then put them through the slicing software and printed them. Being able to make things from start to finish even if it's something trivial means a lot to me. Perhaps one day I can do something really impressive with it.

 

 

The plan is to glue a magnet inside the tank and then fix one to the end of the flying stand for some (hopefully) extremely heavy duty basing. I've been burned in the past by brittle flying stands breaking off inside my models so I intend these to be extremely robust. The biggest drawback of those bits to hold the acrylic rods in place (I don't know what the proper word for those things would be) is that now I have to build the bases up to hide them. I like basing but this will be a challenge. Despite being 80mm bases (!) they are not flat because of the rod-holder thingies.

 

One silver lining about the 3d printed bases is that those print lines will give my base decoration something to grab onto so it should stick fast.

 

Right, game night tomorrow, wish me luck!

[Magos Takatus]

Here's some photos from yesterday's game. I lost yet again but there were a few humorous interactions. My opponent's sorcerer guy almost blew his head off turn 1 due to an unfortunate perils roll which set the tone for the rest of the game. My War Walkers carrier on their fine tradition of being useless even when there were three of them, spending the whole game looking for their contact lenses on the floor instead of trying to kill the Plagueburst Crawler who was able to shell everything across the map with impunity. My opponent brought down both squads of Terminators to surround my Walkers but they just decided to nope out of that pincer, though that meant they lost line of sight with the Crawler and had to spend more of the game unable to draw a line of sight to it.

 

On the other flank my Guardians, Avatar and Fire Dragons advanced up the board getting peppered with shots from my opponent's Blighthaulers who were far harder to kill than I expected but their dice rolls proved mostly ineffective. My Dragons and Avatar along with fire support from my bikes destroyed both the Blighthaulers, with my opponent self-destructing them both, causing two mortal wounds to my Avatar (I needed to get past the second Blighthauler so I decided to just take the second mortal wound on the chin and push on instead of hanging back. In the next few turns my army was whittled away to just my Avatar, who raged at the opposing Terminator squad but was unable to kill them at the end of the game due to me rolling two ones on the wounding dice and his -1 to incoming damage taking effect. The result was He destroyed 2 out of my 3 key units and I was unable to wipe out any of his. That Death Guard durability and my own cursed dice rolling preventing me from taking out the scoring targets.

 

[Magos Takatus]

Here's the photos from the 1250 practice battle vs Sisters. Another loss, and a pretty savage one at that. My opponent pretty much shrugged me off every primary objective and every time I committed to attack my unit got wiped out. I got the first turn and crippled but failed to finish off a squad of Novitiates, who dropped back to luck for the rest of the game.  I pushed forward aggressively with the Avatar since he's my guy forward since that's about the only thing you can do when your model is taller than a two-storey building. Gotta hide him in combat! My War Walkers opened fire, crippling but not destroying a rhino. Seriously, these things are cursed.

 

My primary bike squadron was wiped out in one shooting phase when my opponent's multi-meltas fired upon them, causing the last 3 in the unit to vanish off the board, leaving my Farseer exposed. I instantly regretted being bold with them but with a Castigator tank on one side and Penitent Engines on the other, I thought I was better off taking pot shots at the middle units. I'm not sure what the Novitiates were capable of but I didn't want a unit of them squatting on the central point. The Sisters were in a 2+ save so cracking open that squad would have been very difficult. My Avatar and Fire Dragons advanced, eager for some revenge. The Burning Heat ability once again kicked in with the Dragons turning the centre of the board into melta armageddon, turning most of the offending multi-melta squad into ash in return. The Avatar skewered himself a Rhino with his spear causing the Sisters Repentia to bail out. I believe at this point the Rangers picked their targets and killed a few of the Repentia after forgetting to do anything at all in the first turn (It's that camo, it's too effective! 

 

The Avatar charged into the Crusaders on the central point in order to prevent them gaining control. In hindsight I should have probably gone for a longer charge and tried to shoot down the crusaders with my half-sized bike squad. As it stood my Avatar obliterated the two Crusaders but opened himself up for a charge from the Sacrisants. My rolls to save were dismal and my Avatar was wounded pretty heavily and additional units entered the fray, including the canoness. 

 

My Avatar died, the War Walkers eventually killed the Castigator tank and achieved something for once. I really don't think they are worth the points investment sadly. At some point one of my War Walkers exploded, passing on a mortal wound to the other two. This later came back to haunt me as the last surviving Dominion Sister wielded her multi-melta and destroyed them both in a single turn, rolling exactly the amount of wound needing to down them. She was probably my pick for woman of the match. The Seraphim and Zephyrim both dropped in scouring my Guardians and Rangers off the map to prevent me scoring in my own  deployment zone for a turn. My Jetbikes and Farseer recalled to shred the Seraphim with Shuriken fire but were unable to prevent themselves from being charged by the Zephyrim. The bikers were wiped out but there was a grinding attrition between my Farseer and the last of the Zephyrim, with him eventually tiring and playing the Mind Bullet card and blasted them off the table with a smite. 

 

The Farseer took stock of the battlefield and quickly realised he was the last living Aeldari in the region. With a heavy heart he spun his jetbike round and raced away. Those Spirit stones would need reclaiming one day but he no longer had the power to resist the crushing fanatics advance.

 

Overall I was outplayed and my list is probably still too wonky and I used Command Points far too sparingly in the early game. I enjoyed the game because my opponent was entertaining, helpful and even offered advice during the game which I was grateful for, he also reminded me to use my Strands of Fate when I started to get tunnel vision during the game. It doesn't change the fact that I have only won a single game of 9th edition 40k. I feel I need something else to support the Avatar in melee at some point but I will probably need to trim points elsewhere in the army to do so. I was able to use Guardians once or twice to buffer for the Avatar but this time I used them to guard my home objective and they got wiped out instantly anyway. I've just realised Eldar have a stratagem to fire on deep striking models and I probably could have riddled the Seraphim with Shuriken fire before they fired their hand flamers?

 

Anyway, moral of the story, good opponent who played well verses my rather dismal efforts. Another go in future I suppose. 

 

[Magos Takatus]

It's time for an update before tonight's game where I will be facing a Necron army painted in a striking synthwave/vapourwave style colour scheme. I haven't got my painting or basing finished this month which is a real sore point for me, I don't like to play with unfinished models but this time I have little choice.

I will have to jump up to 2000 points for the next month because 10th edition rules have squeezed the Escalation league timeline rather tightly. I might have to draft in a few units from my old 2nd edition Ulthwé army... those will look a bit rough compared to my usual standard. Either that or my War Walkers can be fielded and disappoint me yet again. 

 

Anyway, I am introducing some Howling Banshees to frolic around the Avatar's feet and either eat some charges or lock down squads for the Avatar to slice his way through. In addition to that I am introducing a Fire Prism. I am really pleased that I found a good use for my orange fluorescent pigment, combined with a couple of different fluo paints that I mixed and stirred really, really hard I think I got a pleasing glow effect around the focusing crystals. I have very little luck with my fluo paints before but through an airbrush the effect speaks for itself.

 

It's just a few hours until my Game against the Necrons, I suppose I'd best read and re-read my rules until my brain gives up an actually decides to remember something.

[Magos Takatus]

Sadly my game was cancelled. At least I have a chance to get more paint on my minis in time for my next game.

[TrawlingCleaner]

It's a shame your game was cancelled but your army is looking amazing, Magos! Great work!

[Magos Takatus]

Here's the images I took for my army predominantly for my long overdue Instagram page.

[The Yncarne]

you should use one of them for your profile picture. 

[Magos Takatus]

Haha! Maybe I should switch my profile pic to whatever army I am working on at the time? 

[Magos Takatus]

Oh, just to let you know, the League ended with a bit of a whimper with me missing the 1500pooint and 2000pt games. I come fourth with best painted army but with only one win under my belt I can't say I did well. I feel like I am tentatively becoming part of the group of people playing locally. I am happy that the league got a few more units brought out of the pile of shame, though I did add a few more units back on sadly. This project led me to start with nothing and 3d model and print bases for my army so it has made me learn new skills, albeit slowly and through trial and error. 

 

With my lack of enthusiasm toward 10th edition 40k I have mainly been playing Blood Bowl at the club with an introductory game of Armada by Mantic Games as well.

 

Going forward I think I'm going to keep this thread as a project log and add to it over time. I will probably rotate through army projects so the  progress here will probably be fairly slow. I will still have the remaining three Windrunners  awaiting completion so I will switch to those fairly soon.

[The Yncarne]

Sorry to see your interest wane, but it happens. Focus on you; those things will still be there. Enjoy blood bowl.

[TrawlingCleaner]

Very clean painting and an amazing army!

A shame to hear that your interest is going but enjoy BB (it's fantastic) and update us when you get painting again!

[Magos Takatus]

Hi, quick update, my mother died a few months back and with her she took my hobby motivation. However, I have started to get back on the horse and I have finished my Norse Blood Bowl team, which freed me up to start painting my other projects. I've painted up two out of the three remaining Windriders, Photos will be taken when they are complete. Also, for a change I quickly painted up another Farseer. I decided to incorporate some different paints into my colour scheme so this one's got some green and purple included to. I swear he's not a Decepticon!

 

I will be moving my worldly possessions into a different bedroom soon, and I had to clear the room containing my airbrush setup so for a while I might be painting projects I've already started rather than building an undercoating new models. My pile of shame is multi-faceted and sometimes I have to attack it from many directions. I have some partly painted metal Striking Scorpions that I may need to quickly strip and paint before the plastic models make the old ones obsolete in my mind. If I get them finished I'll be a lot more tolerant towards them.

 

I might just about muster the enthusiasm for 10th edition 40k but I've got to keep cranking out models at the same time.

[Magos Takatus]

Here's a continuation from yesterday. I have completed all of my Windriders and most of the weapon options. I am really pleased with the results. That's a sizable chunk of my mobile army elements complete.

 

 

I still have a biker Seer Council to paint, and I haven't started on the Shining Spears and the Shroudrunners yet. Maybe something with it's feet on the ground might be a good idea next. As always, my indecision is allowed to run riot. :p

Edited November 19, 2023 by Magos Takatus

[TrawlingCleaner]

I'm so sorry to hear about your mother, Magos. I hope you're doing well too. I always find painting helps chill me out and hope it does for you too

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you. I do really miss her but I'm certain I'm not going to let it get t o me. I have friends, family and this community to keep me motivated. I've restarted some Artel W Ork Tankbusta equivalents but I will probably be back to Ulthwé soon enough. There's so many amazing kits to paint up for the army. I'm unsure whether to fill in gaps in my army or just produce a plastic Avatar of Khaine so I can retire the Forge World one before I break it. 

[Pearson73]

The Windriders look ace, as does the Farseer - love the coloured robes!

 

Sorry to hear bout your mother, though I'm glad you have a good community about you!