The Just - Dr. Ruminahui's new Emperor's Children

[Slaanbull]

Wow! I've not been checking in for a while but you've finished so much over the last months, crazy good effort!

The camo cloak is such a fun idea. I've had some success with dry-brushing a neutral off-white over camo patterned cloth in the past, rather than shading it. That might work for you as as well if you decide to revisit that part of the models.
The ten infractors with blue details a few posts back are great, a really striking unit when posing together. 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Despite the knightly distraction (I converted and painted a bunch of gatling cannons and a missile launcher to let me field 2 despoilers), I just managed to finish painting my tormentors before the new year.  Here they are:

 

 

Pretty happy with them, and have now started on the second squad.  Particularly like the studded leather shoulder pad coverings as squad markings, as they look really nice against the obnoxiously purple armor.  The head on the champion is from one of the FW space marine sets, and I think it looks pretty well on my EC - after all, a haircut that bad can only be an EC... or a space wolf.  

 

Anyway, just started painting my second squad, so I should be able to show you how I intend to vary the Slannpat on the cloaks to differentiate squads.

[Volgon]

Looking good @Dr_Ruminahui! I know the capes are a mainstay of your forces but I like the bulk they add to these EC models. I wasn't a big fan of the EC range originally; I prefer size over sleekness, but they've grown on me for sure. 

 

I'm curious, what else lies in store for your EC army? You've done a lot of work on them (along with whatever you could bring over with your Slaaneshi CSM) so what's left? I've been pondering that myself; what units do I want to work on in the future and how to incorporate older projects (leftovers from when it was simply Kill Team stuff). 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Yeah, that's part of why I like the capes as well - they make the models look much larger and more menacing.  I think I still prefer the Heretic Astartes space marine models over EC ones, but the EC ones are fine and I'm quite happy with them once they have the requisite capes.

 

Quite a lot, actually - I've just barely scratched the surface of the EC models I've acquired.  Basically, I bought the starter box, the combat patrol and the Christmas box, which I've then supplemented with some models from my CSM force (rhino, 2x maulerfiends, a lord kakaphonist and an old winged demon prince) and some character models (including a new winged demon prince I have yet to paint) that I bought and which have made their way into my paint queue.

 

So, in the spring, I base coated the stuff from the starting box, plus the rhino and the assorted characters.  Next in my painting queue is that stuff - so my twin pistol Lord exultant/kakaphonist/Cypher stand in, 5 tormentors and 5 noise marines (I've already painted the 6th).  As useful as the winged demon prince would be, I need to figure out how to paint it first (it's a split scheme where I need to work out the alternate colour - it will be the same colour as my CSM raptors... once I figure out how I want to do them).

 

Then, come spring, I intend to spray another batch of 30 or so models - probably the combat patrol stuff.

 

At the moment, I can't really play any EC army over 1000 points without going Carnival and using demons to make up the points... so I would like to get enough EC marine stuff done so that I can at least have 1500 points of just that.  I should be there (or pretty close) when I get my primed stuff done, though my army would definitely benefit from the 2 5 man intractor squads I intend to make from the combat patrol box.

 

Good luck with your own decision making, and I look forward to seeing whatever it is you decide to work on next.

Edited January 2 by Dr_Ruminahui

[kabaakaba]

That's a great work. I'm amazed again with your cloaks and this deep purple. 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks, @kabaakaba - I can't take much credit for the purple, (other than choosing it), as its just airbrushed art paint, but I'm happy to do so for the capes.  

 

Had one of my funnest 40K games in a long time, and my first 2000 point game of the edition - we normally play 1000 or 1500 point games, as we play fairly rarely and quite slowly.

 

I played a Carnival list composed of:

- Demon prince with wings with a possessed blade (gives +1 attack and can make his melee have Dev Wounds and Hazardous)

- Lord exultant (spear & lash) with the acrobatic wargear (auto 6 advance, move through enemies) with 10x infractors (champ with lash and plasma) in a rhino

- Lord K with 2x pistol with 6 noise marines (champ with sword) in rhino

- Lord K with sword 6 noise marines (champ with sword)

- 6x noise marines (champ with blaster)

- 5x tormentors (champ with sword and plasma)

- 2x Maulerfiends (with tendrils)

- 2x 5 seekers

- 2x 10 demonettes

- 1x 2 spawn

 

My friend had a really fun Speed Freaks Ork list composed of (as far as remember):

- Warboss with fist + Weird boy with 20x boys (with 2x rockets)

- Warboss with fist with 20x boys (with 2x rockets)

- 6x Breaks boys (melee anti-tank) in a truck

- 10x burna unit in a truck

- 2x 3 Coptas

- 2x Def Dreads (one with 4x claws, one with 3x claws + scorcha)

- 2x 3 bikes, each with boss on trike

- 1x teleporting F1 racecar buggy

- 1x jet engine with missiles buggy

- 1x rivet gun muscle car buggy

- A big mech with some big hazardous gun that almost kills my demon prince in the top of turn 4, but otherwise doesn't do much

 

Here's a picture from the bottom of turn 2, of me move blocking his two dreads with my seekers:

 

 

Basically, we started in opposite table quarters, and we've both move onto each other's natural expansion objectives - going first with a scouting rhino (with infractors in it) I got there before he did, while his "da jump"-ing orks and the coptas that are in the left of this photo clearing out my tormentors hiding out behind the ruin the top left (but not before I precision melta-d out his weird boy from his orks with the tormentors - I went after the weird boy to reduce his mobility, but probably should have sniped his warboss instead).  By this point, I had killed his breaks boyz and their truck (with the squad of noise marines which is by this point dead but whose Lord K is in the central ruin by the seekers, and those seekers), the jet engine buggy with the noise marines now in with his trike, one squad of bikes + warboss trike with tinfractors and other seekers, and the bikes with the other trike with my other mauler (the first one got munched by a Def Dread turn one - I set him up to charge the breaks boy truck, then killed the truck with shooting).

 

My prince and a squad of demonettes remain off the table.  This mission your home objective didn't score but you could guard an objective (including it) for 2 points, so that was what I was doing with my demonettes in the bottom right - I was planning on picking them up and redeploying them with the 2 CP strat but I never managed to save up the CP for it as I kept using my secondaries to score, even for low points, rather than tossing them for CP.  Oh, and 3rd noise marines are in the rhino on the left, while my other rhino (the infractors ride) is just off screen to the right with 2 wounds left - the coptas couldn't quite kill it.  The other two buggies are off screeen scoring secondaries.

 

Oh, and my spawn are tucked onto the objective doing a secondary - they kept doing that, then scooting back whenever the enemy came within 9".  Meant I wasn't holding the centre, but did mean I could survive to do that several times.

 

Here's a picture from turn 3:

 

 

Here, his jumping boys are now on the left, and have eaten the noise marine squad that was in the rhino in the last picture.  I've charged my infractors into his boyz in the middle after restraining from shooting them, as I wanted to make sure I made it onto the centre (I had secondaries to both hold the centre and kill him off of it, so this was key) and then charged the rhino into the warboss to pin it in place to prevent him from piling onto the objective - which all worked, as I killed the whole squad but the boss and piled into the middle.  My noise marines unfortunately failed to kill the top truck, which was unfortunate as it was full of burnas which were really going to hurt my infractors in coming turns.  Oh, and my mauler is about to eat one of the dreads, and somehow survive the crackback from the other which heroic interventioned this turn.

 

Off screen, my prince is hiding behind the wall in the top right, having deepstruck on my opponent's turn and has now charged the buggy on the other side of the wall, which it will kill and grab the objective for myself.  My 2nd demonettes squad is on the objective in the bottom right (having deepstruck in my turn, and has killed the coptas there (or something did).  His other coptas are on my home objective killing off the demonettes there, which his teleporting F1 is there too, scoring a 6 point sabotage in my deployment zone.

 

Prior to above described successes, I felt I was running on fumes but scoring 10 points of secondaries plus some primary points to boot really kept me in the game.

 

This is also turn 3, just on his turn.

 

 

Here, he has just charged my maulerfiend with his boyz, just managing to kill it exactly to warboss & nob power claw only to have his last wound stripped exactly by the choppa attacks.  The mauler then blew up and put wounds on everything in this photo except the noise marines - including the lone spawn that isn't in the photo because it was killed by the explosion.  This was a huge swing in his direction, as the explosion hurt me more than him and I probably would have killed the dread had the mauler survived, which might have put me in a better place against his remaining horde.

 

Ultimately, the game was a loss, but very, very close - my opponent managed to get 11 points in secondaries on the final turn, giving him the win 69 to 67.  His MVP was definitely the teleporting F1, which probably helped him score about 15 VP over the game.

 

I really do prefer how the 2000 point game played over 1500, (or 1000), as at the lower levels I felt like I just didn't have enough pieces to trade and also do objectives.  Further, I like how the secondary cards drawn (and the ones held onto by my opponent) really shaped decision making in way they haven't in the past, where it always felt like my opponent's cards were no brainers to achieve and mine were all duds.  In this game, a number of tactical decisions were made based on how best to deny my enemy points, which I really liked.  Its too bad 2000 point games take so long, though I'm definitely going to try to make the time for them.

 

Oh, and we had had 2 visitations on the table to the Greater Furred Demon "Grace", the first before I had my phone downstairs, and the second she knocked over some terrain and scared herself back into the immaterium before photographic evidence could be acquired.  

Edited January 4 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Tallarn Commander]

Thanks for the fun batrep. Games against Greenskins are always a blast. I'd like to think that Grace was the real winner of the match. 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

@Tallarn Commander - yeah, orks are always fun but this list was particularly so, as the buggies and the bikes (and trikes) made the most "speed freaky" list I've played against.  My friend's first army was speed freaks (back in 3rd ed) and he's been playing his orks as such on-and-off ever since, but it was mostly just boys in trucks - this is the first time where his list felt fully true with the fluff, and I loved it.

 

As for Grace being the match winner, she didn't get any food or treats out of it, so I doubt she feels that way.   That said, I think the 2 players were both winners, as it was an exceptionally close, suspenseful and fun game.

 

Rather than dive straight into my second tormentor's squad, I decided to paint a character as a bit of a pallette cleanser.  Here he is:

 

 

This is the "meme" 3-pistol Exultant conversion I did mostly for the LOLs.  I intend to use him in a variety of roles - for now, as a twin screamer Lord K until the actual GW model becomes available for sale again, possibly as an Exultant after that, and as my Cypher stand-in in my CSM army... that's why I went with the split colour scheme.

 

The model is more static than I might like (more Last Man Standing than Hard Boiled, for those familiar with those movies), but I'm still pretty happy with him.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Got side tracked kit bashing some knights, so these essentially have sat on my desk with the capes done since at least the beginning of January.  However, with my knight builds done, I was able to focus on doing the detail work and finishing the models.

 

Here's my second squad of tormentors - squad leader has the whip not because I thinks it the best choice (though it was when I built the squad, which was pre-eratta bumping the S on the power sword) but because I don't like to build cookie cutter squads.

 

 

And with my other tormentor squad:

 

 

Seeing the two side by side, I'm really happy with the how the cloaks turned out.  The main purpose of the symbols on the back of the cloaks being different colours is squad differentiation, and I wasn't sure that would be distinct enough with the slannpat.  So I'm really happy that it seems to the 4 colour camo pattern, with 1 colour as base common across both squads, 2 for the slanneshi "blotches" and the 4th for the symbol (which for the other squad would be a blotch colour) seems to have worked well.  Does mean that I can only do one more squad this way before I need to come up with a different slaanpat pattern, but it seems unlikely I would want more than 3 squads, so I'm fine with that.

 

Currently I'm working on painting my winged demon prince (nice model, though I'm concerned about how, if I do a second, I'll make them look meaningfully different, as other than weapon and feet options, the model really is monopose.

 

I have also mostly built 2 5-man squads of infractors - I just need to do the greenstuffing for the cloaks.  As that's quite the chore, I think that will wait until I need a break from painting.

 

Oh, and I was also able to finally acquire one of the GW kakaphonist models, which I build as the twin pistol version, though with the aiming left arm as otherwise the model looks like its doing squats.  Having seen it in person - still not a great model, but I don't have any ideas for kitbashing a different one, so I figured I might as well have one of the official model in my army.

Edited February 25 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Dr_Ruminahui]

So, I had a game scheduled with my ork playing friend (here's my post about our last game) for tomorrow, but that has been rescheduled to March.  Which should give me time to finish painting my second winged demon prince, so I can field a fully painted army (which is an expectation I like to put on myself but do not place on my opponents).

 

Which would be kind of an important milestone for me, because it would mean, for the first time, I am able to field a 2000 point force of units I actually want to field (so, no needing to take a helldrake or landraider merely to make up the points) without filling the points withe demons and going Carnival of Excess.

 

I'm thinking of fielding the following list under Court of the Phoenician

 

- Winged demon prince as my warlord, with the enhancement that ignores hit and wound modifiers in melee.

- Winged demon prince

- Lord exultant spear & lash + Infractors x10

- Lord Kakaphonist with power weapon + noise marines (power weapon & screamer, 2x blastmaster, 3x sonic)

- Lord Kakaphonist with 2x pistols + noise marines (2x blastmaster, 4x sonic)

- Lord Kakaphonist with 2x pistols + noise marines (2x blastmaster, 4x sonic)

- Rhino with 2x combibolters + havoc

- Rhino with 2x combibolters + havoc

- Tormentors x5

- Tormentors x5

- Spawn x2

- Maulerfiend with lashes 

- Maulerfiend with lashes 

 

I was originally going to field it as Coterie of the Conceited, which is probably more powerful, but I find Coterie's core mechanic really stressful and it doesn't really kick in until a turn after I'm stuck in.  With Court, it applies from my very first charge and will likely trigger on most charges - plus, the strat to let my maulerfiends and winged princes move/charge through walls seems very handy.

 

Once I get a better handle of my list and learn how much I can expect to kill in a turn, I may switch to Coterie - but in the meantime, I thought I would give Court a go.

Edited February 27 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Tallarn Commander]

Looks like a fun list. Whenever I play against someone who has a "kill pledge-based" army rule, it always seems more trouble than it is worth. And the Court of the Phoenician has some very fun strats, as you note.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Well, I now can field that list with fully painted models as I've finished my demon prince - must say I'm pretty happy with him.

 

 

I did him quartered, with my EC magenta and a metallic purple that I intend to use for my CSM raptors - the main reason it took so long to paint this guy was it took forever for me to find and decide on a metallic purple I liked for the raptors and him.  This scheme was chosen (like with my 3-gun LE/Cypher stand in) so that he would look like he belongs when I use him in either force.

 

Here are some pictures of his back (I did the reiklander wash for all the flesh except the inside of the wings, and I didn't want to make that portion of the model too dark) with each of the other weapon options - I magnetized them in case they ever become separate options again.  The weapon options don't really show up well from the front, so I figured this was the best way of showing them.

 

 

And here is a picture with the old demon prince - the new one is a huge glow up.

 

 

Once I figure out how I want to highlight the magenta, I'll come back and highlight the armour, but for now he's done.

Edited March 7 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Okay, I've finally finished building my 2 5-man infractor squads.

 

 

I'm pretty happy with them, especially the forgeworld heads on the squad leaders (and their poses - I like how the one on the right kind of looks like the old metal ultramarines (or was it dark angels?) space marine scout character).

 

Greenstuffing their capes was a bit more challenging than usual, as my greenstuff is rather old and some of the yellow half refuses to mix and just forms chunks, plus it has a much shorter period where it is workable.  Not such a problem with bigger builds without much sculpting, but a real headache for the thin capes to get them to look smooth... so that's part of why this portion of the build took so long.  Anyway, they are done now and will be primed and sprayed in the next month or 2 once the snow is gone and the ground dried.

[Volgon]

I've switched entirely to Milliput because the green stuff I have is positively ancient, gotta be 20-25 years old at this point. I would try using it and it would be an absolute pain to mix, and then once I finally did it was tough to work with. I'd like to get some Tamiya Quick Type as that seems to be the rage lately, and with Kneadatite out of business it's the perfect opportunity to pick some up.

 

 

[Tallarn Commander]

Yes, milliput is good stuff. I sometimes use that exclusively or mixed with Greenstuff. I use Greenstuff exclusively if I've bought it in the last month or so. As you all know, Green Stuff doesn't last long. Milliput also sands down more effectively if you are looking for smoothness. 

 

When my Greenstuff gets old and has those chunks in it I still use it as tattered human flesh bits for my Night Lords. Those are more forgiving. So give your old Green Stuff to your local Night Lords players. 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

The weekend before last I got another game in against the same opponent as here.

 

This time I had enough models to forgo demons, and played the list I posted here.  My friend played a very similar list to last time, just with more 6 bikes instead of one of his dreads (I think). 

 

Game was a real blood bath - we were playing the mission (Purge the Foe?) where you get primary for killing as well as holding.  This really put my friend at a disadvantage given his many cheap and (relatively) fragile units.  Turns out demon princes are excellent at killing T 7 buggies.  Anyway, I was killing like 7 units a turn for turns 2 and 3 and even though he was killing about 5 of mine a turn and our points were pretty similar for turns 1-3, he simply ran out of units and I was able to take the game.  Still, lots of fun and super swingy - turns 2 and 3, we would each hold 4 objectives at the ends of our turns, then only 1 or 2 when it cam time to score.  Don't really have any good photos though, unfortunately.

 

Be interesting to see if the game would have gone differently if my opponent hadn't made a mistake turn 1.  I went first, and moved my 10 man infractors + lord directly up behind a wall, thinking I was far enough away and would need the extra 1" movement on my turn.  This was a mistake, as it let his 6 ork bike squad + trike boss charge them, however he also charged a rhino with a dread, which he activated first.  This let me use the strat to make my infractors go next, where I used the Lord's once-per-game buff allowing him and the squad to eat all the bikes except the boss, meaning that the crack back only killed a few models.  The infractors were then able to go forward to kill a squad of boyz and take the centre objective.  So, while I don't know if that activation mistake cost my friend the game, it certainly made it much harder for him.

 

Didn't really end up using any of the Court's stratagems other than the one for close range shooting - the +1 S was pretty useful as it took my small noise marine guns to wounding orks from 4s to 3s, and the same for the big guns against his dread and truck.  The extra AP was also useful against his vehicles.  I was expecting to use the move through wall strat, but really didn't need it as one maulerfiend had a clear lane (where it was killed by 1/2 a squad of breakaboyz with a boss - went from full to zero in one melee activation), the other came in using strategic reserves and my winged princes generally had enough movement to fly around the ruins so didn't need it.

 

Definitely liking not having to rely on the synergies of Carnival, and feel I have a pretty strong list, at least against my friend's orks.  Certainly, I think 2 winged princes is kind of oppressive in this match up... but for now I don't really have anything to replace either with.

 

One nice thing about the new army is it all fits on one tray.  I was taking a picture to show that to you guys when I was "Graced" by a visitor.

 

Edited March 30 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Tallarn Commander]

Too bad about your friend's early game activation. It looks like it was a fun game indeed. 

 

Did your 4 Blastmasters do well? And did you use them in an anti-armor or anti-infantry role or both? They are usually quite effective against me when I go up against EC.

 

The true victorious combatant of the day was Grace. 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Yeah, it was a fun game, but not quite as much as the one prior, where we literally didn't know who had won until the top of turn 5 and both of us were making hail mary primary and secondary plays at the end of the game to secure a win.  Still, not all games can be like that, and it was still fun - much better than getting blasted off the table by necrons.

 

As for my friend's activation, it did allow me to use my full infractor squad for maximum effect, something I haven't really gotten the chance to do prior.  Plus, if I hadn't screwed up myself, it wouldn't even have been an option for him.  All in all, a valuable learning moment for us both.

 

I did make good use of the blastmasters (I had 6 in my list, as I had 3 squads of noise marines), which I think were particularly potent in this matchup where he had nothing above T 9 and was (aside from the dread) a 4+ save at best.  Most of the game, I shot them at his tougher stuff (trucks, dread, buggies) while the units' other weapons directed their fire into his dethcoptas and bikes (where the +1 S from the strat came in very handy against their T 6) and a single model firing at whatever infantry squad might be visible so as to inflict the Lord Kakaphonist mortals.  Towards the end of the game, I used their anti-personnel mode to wipe out a squad of burnas, but generally used them in their anti-armour mode as they are the best weapons in my list for that task.  At 1/2 the shots but 3x the damage and better S, I think the anti-armour mode is always better even for non-armour targets except against 1 wound models such as ork boyz (and burnas).

 

Grace was more of an observer than a combatant, but it was a role she performed skillfully and efficiently (and cutely).  Slannesh would be proud. 

Edited April 1 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Dr_Ruminahui]

While I wasn't able to snag the new defiler model when it went on preorder, I'm looking forward to fielding my previous kitbash in my EC list, where it will give me some much needed firepower.  Don't currently have all the options modelled, so for now it will be the battlecannon, excrutiator, lascannon and heavy missile build (I also have the autocannon + the flail and baleflamer [but not at the same time for those 2 as its currently built]).  I plan to build another twin lascannon and twin autocannon, a differently mounted baleflamer, a different set of excrutiators (for now I'll be using a combibolter for such, but I want something that looks punchier) and a pair of magna cutters, but those can wait - that will give it all the options but the ectoplasm, which really isn't something I can easily do given the existing model so am content with not having for that particular model.

 

Also sold out are 160mm bases, so I was unable to pick one of those up either for my existing, currently baseless, defiler.  Probably pick up 2 when they become available, as I'm thinking of building a 3rd defiler (as I'll be getting the GW one when they restock) out of the the AoS Glutos kit as per @Valkyrion's excellent idea.

 

In the meantime, I've finished doing the capes for my third squad of new model noise marines, and am waiting for the snow to finally go away (winter still isn't fully gone here) so that I can prime and then base coat those and my 2 5-man infractor squads.

 

I also really need to get to painting my second new model noise marine squads - I kind of stalled out on the second guy when I noticed I had gotten the orange on the cape different from the first model I did.  Think I figured out how I should have painted it, so will get back on that as soon as can pick up a brush rather than playing computer games.

Edited April 14 by Dr_Ruminahui