Straken Survives Crash! And Some Denerair Updates

 
Last Friday's games vs the vile xenos of Synide's Craftworld Kai were amazing fun. Painful for my forces, but fun anyways.

His 1850pt army list:
Vile Eldar xenos scum:
Autarch on jetbike, with fusion gun, lance and the funky mask
Spiritseer
5 Wraithguard w wraithcannon
Wave Serpent with holofields, twin scatter lasers, shuriken cannon
5 Wraithguard w the flamer things
Wave Serpent with holofields, twin scatter lasers, shuriken cannon
Crimson Hunter w Exarch
Hemlock
3 Hornets
Night Spinner
Night Spinner

The Emperor's Indomitable II Catachan, Air Mobile Detachment:
Colonel Straken, with 3 plasma gunners and a Medic
Padre Peters (rides with Straken)
Major Winters, with 3 riflemen and standard bearer
1st Assault squad - demolitions, heavy flamer, 2 meltaguns
2nd Assault squad - demolitions, heavy flamer, 2 meltaguns
3rd squad - autocannon, 2 meltaguns, vet sgt w meltabombs
4th squad - autocannon, sniper, 2 plasma guns, vet sgt w meltabombs
5th squad - autocannon, sniper, 2 plasma guns, vet sgt w meltabombs
Valkyrie Squadron - 2 Valks with missile pods
Vendetta Squadron - 2 aircraft
Vendetta Squadron - 2 aircraft

Synide, the poor thing, had never played a Maelstrom mission before, so I got him to try it out. We played mission no.3. Safe to say it was so much fun, he actually bought the mission cards that night.

 

I won't go thru a blow by blow of the game, but one thing's for sure - Eldar armies like this one are alongside the Tau for armies that the AirCav just cannot handle. While Straken's troopers fought valiantly, they didn't stand a chance. Xenos withering firepower very quickly tore down the Vendettas and Valkyrie, and amidst my backdrop music of Ride The Valkyrie and assorted late-60s rock, the Catachans' brave fight could not stop the xenos from absolute victory. Only 1 Catachan survived - the Veteran Sergeant Hobbs of 2nd Assault Squad.

The most amazing moment of the game had to be when Straken's Vendetta was shot down by the Crimson Hunter, sending the mighty gunship down in flames, and crashing with a thunderous blast, killing all onboard - except for Straken. Emerging from the fiery twisted wreck, the incensed Colonel charged the nearest xenos tank and brought it crashing down (the plan was for the surviving Vendetta squadron to kill the Wave Serpent, and Straken then would charge the Spiritseer and Wraithguard inside - but the Serpent survived the lascannons with 1 hull-point remaining).

We played a second game, with the same xenos army taking on Ahriman and my Thousand Sons. This game was much closer, the xenos winning 13-11. I hadn't played the Thousand Sons in awhile, and it was pretty refreshing to play Chaos after weeks of siding with the Imperium.

A quick update on my Denerair Highland regiment project. I started on the first Wyvern, and you can see some of the progress below. I really don't like the original kit because it looks too much like a Hydra without the long autocannon barrels (which it is). So I swapped the barrel mountings left to right, and the result is something that I like much better than the original kit. I've added some stowage, and the vehicle is ready for painting - hopefully tomorrow.

Keep them dice rolling.

 

Deadlock!

Last week's Deadlock battle vs Eldar xenos was quite the slug-fest. I had just finished painting the reinforcements for my AirCav, and eager to see how the updated list would work. Of course, we had to pick Deadlock! Which on hindsight is probably not what the AirCav is best suited for. O well, I'm sure Straken didn't worry about it.

Deadlock is a really interesting mission as the number of tactical objectives reduces with each turn played. So the best chances to score VPs is as early in the game as possible. Of course, when I deployed Major Winters' 2iC squad and the 3 ground support/pathfinder squads, and waiting for the Air Cavalry to arrive, it did seem slightly daunting.

 

With the Eldar swarming into my positions from the get-go, I was quite lucky to actually survive the first couple of turns. Both sides' fire were not really that good in the early game, but the Eldar were picking up objectives really fast.

Things started to improve when the gunships arrived, streaking in guns blazing and actually giving me first blood by tearing up a Wraithlord. The Eldar's lack of dedicated anti-aircraft gave me a good advantage, though they were still far ahead in terms of VPs.

Things got desperate, and as my final reinforcements finally arrive, the Valkyries hovered in, directly disembarking 2 veteran demolitions squads into the thick of the action. One of the squads unleashed heavy flamer and melta fire, and by the time the dust from the demo charge settled, there weren't any targets left for the squad's lasguns. An entire squad of 6 Wraithguard and their Wave Serpent were blown to bits. The other assault squad didn't do so well. Point-blank range melta and heavy flamer fire into the rear of the xenos leader's Wave Serpent did nothing (both meltas missed), and taking a huge risk (both Valkyries were nearby), the demo charge dude hurled his explosives at the xenos skimmer, knocking out another hullpoint. Straken's command squad also disembarked, plasma guns making short work of the nearest Wraithlord.

The xenos reaction was quite dramatic. Apparently to avenge his fallen undead kin, the gigantic Wraithnight stomped over and charged Straken's squad. Two of Straken's plasma gunners fell, but the combination of Counter-charge, Zealot, Battle Hymns, Smash and Monster Hunter saw a drawn combat. The nearest AirCav assault squad later lent a hand and charged into the melee, and shortly after, the monstrous Wraithknight was felled.

The Eldar Guardians had disembarked and shot the other assault squad to ribbons. It was down to the last couple of turns, and I figured the only way I could catch up on VPs and steal a win is to kill the Eldar Spiritseer Warlord, embedded deep in the Guardian squad. Mustering what was left of my army, the AirCav managed to wipe out the Guardian bodyguards. The Spiritseer Warlord was down to his last wound. And he survived the battle!

It was truly epic, right down to the last die roll of 7 turns. Losses were heavy on both sides. The Eldar had only 4 survivors, losing 3 out of 4 Wave Serpents, both Wraithlords, the Wraithknight, 10 Guardians and 14 of 16 Wraithguard. The AirCav lost both Valkyrie,  a Vendetta, and 47 troopers (out of 61 men). Bloody.

My MVPs were most definitely the Colonel himself for taking on the Wraithknight in close combat and winning the fight, Major Winters for his spirited leadership of the forward squads on the ground and for killing a Wraithguard in close combat and most definitely the sole surviving trooper of 4th Squad who kept up a steady lasgun fire from the battlements of an objective even as his squad was gunned down mercilessly by the xenos.

But of course, MVP of the match had to go to xenos Warlord who just wouldn't die!

Some lessons: I kept forgetting to use my Master of Ordnance, so maybe I don't really need him. Also, my forward ground squads (I call them Pathfinders) could do with a little more punch. Juggling some points and using available models, the squads starting on the ground now get 2 additional plasma guns and a meltagun, and all 3 sergeants get meltabombs. Major Winters is truly inspiring, and his leadership and orders role is spot on. I'm just now split between giving his 2iC squad a meltagun and a flamer, or keeping the standard bearer there. I might just go with the standard. We'll see.

Keep them dice rolling.

 

AirCav Reinforcements!

 

Finished just in time for an epic battle against xenos undead, the reinforcements for the Air Mobile Detachment of Straken's II Catachan Regiment finally reported for duty last night.

When I started the AirCav army (waaaaay back ...), it was supposed to be made up entirely of veteran light infantry plus their air transport and gunships at 1750pts. But the combination of a failed Throwdown attempt (2000pts), and the change to standard games in my community to 1850pts, I had to include a Basilisk into the army as a stop-gap measure (though I had immense fun painting it - and the Ordnance is always welcome).

With the release of the Astra Militarum codex, I decided to take the Basilisk out of my 1850pt list and return the army back to its original intended light cavalry plus air elements and no tanks theme. I included a second command squad, which is designated as the second-in-command under bolter-toting half-breed Major Winters. His job is to lead the guys who are already on the ground at the start of the battle (designated as "pathfinders") and take charge of the lead elements until Straken and his assault detachment flies in.

The assault veteran squads flying in with Straken are buffed up by kitting them out for Demolitions. And of course, being assault squads, they had to take advantage of Astra Militarum's new cheaper heavy flamers. I had fun doing these guys up. As I was assembling the models, I realized I had used one of the flamer fuel tanks for a Basilisk conversion (it became a fire extinguisher), so the Catachans stole a couple of Cadian-pattern promethium tanks from the neighbouring 77645th Cadian camp. Then I used solder tin as the hose from the tank to the weapon. I think it works out pretty nicely. I also just realized I forgot to model the guy with the actual demo charge itself. That should be simple enough though, I can paint up a couple of satchels and attach them to the demo charge dude's belt.

One thing that's really cool about the Astra Militarum codex is that my squads can have snipers for just 2pts. And since the squads in Major Winters' advanced ground party is meant to stand-off at range, the snipers fit right in.

Since I removed the Basilisk, I thought that maybe a Master of Ordnance can be a cheap stand-in for a nice large blast Ordnance coming in out of nowhere. Plus, I've had the model for ages (it's the metal one from the original Advisors blister pack), so it had to be done up.

Accompanying the snipers in the long-range role are autocannon squads. I find autocannons to be versatile heavy weapons with good range, decent strength, and a good rate of fire. The autocannons aren't glued in, and I'll be painting up some lascannons as well after this so that I can switch back and forth between the two should I need to. I modeled one of the autocannon teams not firing just to have a bit less uniformity. This is the first time I'm actually using autocannon teams in any of my IG armies ever, and I must say I'm quite happy with them.

Anyways, as soon as the matt varnish dried, the reinforcements were rushed straight into battle to repel a xenos incursion. But that story is for another time ...

Keep them dice rolling.

 

 

 

AirCav reinforcements on the way!

When the Astra Militarum book was released, I found that I can practically field my AirCav without the Basilisk in a nice-looking airborne assault infantry themed army. So the new 1850 list will look like this:

HQ:
Colonel Straken - command squad with 3 plasma guns and a medic (for obvious reasons)
Ministorum Priest - he rides with the Colonel's squad in Vendetta 03.

Major Winters - Straken's 2iC. He takes care of the units already deployed on the ground. The standard bearer is with him. Winters is armed with a bolter and sword.
Master of Ordnance - attached to Major Winters squad to call in the big guns when needed (like all the time).

TROOPS:
1st (Assault) Squad - demolitions squad led by veteran sergeant with laspistol & power sword, heavy flamer, 2 meltaguns, and of course, a demo charge. They ride Valkyrie 02 (Straken's old ride in the old book).
2nd (Assault) Squad - demolitions squad with heavy flamer, 2 meltaguns and another demo charge. They ride Valkyrie 07.
3rd Squad - autocannon, a plasma gunner and a sniper.
4th Squad - autocannon and 2 plasma gunners.
5th Squad - autocannon, a plasma gunner and a sniper.

FAST ATTACK:
Valkyrie squadron - 02, 07, both armed with multilaser and rocket pods
Vendetta squadron - 03, 04, both with standard lascannon fit-out
Vendetta squadron - 05, 06, both with standard lascannon fit-out

To get the new army done, I'd have to paint the following models:

1. Missionary Priest - I've had this model since my very first days with the Imperial Guard. I'm using him because the strange new AM book doesn't give shotguns to priests, and I'm not willing to cut up ol' Uriah. This one's already painted. Just need to rebase.

2. Master of Ordnance - this guy's metal from the original IG Advisors blister pack. He and the Officer of the Fleet have been black undercoated for awhile now. Will finally see some paint on him.

3, 4. Snipers - these dudes are kit-bashed using the sniper rifle from the Catachan Command sprue, adding the metal GI heads to both. I made sure that each sniper has a sidearm, just in case. One guy kneeling, the other standing.

5, 6. Heavy flamers - these dudes are kit-bashed with the heavy flamer from the Catachan Command sprue, with the metal GI heads. When assembling them, I realized I had used one of the fuel tank back packs on my Basilisk conversion. Luckily I had a few Cadian-pattern fuel tanks lying around, so I used those instead. Solder iron lead was used as a hose to connect the fuel tanks to the heavy flamers.

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. The autocannon crew are pretty standard. Four crewmen are kneeling in traditional heavy weapons teams poses - one guy firing the weapon, the other spotting/pointing. The 3rd team is shown not firing their weapon. One guy is walking off with a spare ammo drum, while the other guy is standing and just spotted something. All the dudes have the metal GI heads of course.

13. Major Winters himself was kit-bashed using standard Catachan legs, Cadian torso, Catachan Command sprue bolter right arm, Catachan left arm holding sword and one of the spare heads from the Baneblade kit. I like the head because of the bionic right eye, which makes him Straken's distant cousin I guess (though rumor has it that Winters is not Catachan himself). As with all my AirCav troopers, he's also been given ample kit like water bottle, ammo pouches, grenades, etc.

And there we have it. An awesome distraction from my Dark Angels! The army's lack of psykers will probably punish me in 7th, but Straken doesn't give a s**t, of course.

This Friday I shall try out 7th for the first time, probably with the Thousand Sons.Wish me luck.

Keep them dice rolling.

Might of the Emperor's Hammer!

Friday's gaming session was pretty cool, trying out updates to my existing IG armies that I haven't tried yet.

First off was my Mechanized Infantry list. Writing this I realized that this is actually the first time I'm running a mech infantry detachment not entirely made up of veterans. Company Command with Master of Ordnance (first time trying this dude out), a Priest, a Primaris Psyker, one platoon of infantry with Command and 3 squads and lascannons and plasma guns (the 3 squads blobbed up with the priest), a veteran squad with 2 plasma guns, all infantry in Chimera (the veterans' Chimera equipped with heavy flamer in the hull), 2 Vendetta, 2 Leman Russ and 1 Leman Russ Executioner.

The enemy was a very mobile and hard-hitting Eldar force. The mech infantry were completely outclassed, outgunned and outmanouvered. One thing I did learn was that the Master of Ordnance is an awesome Advisor! For so little points, you get a large blast template raining down on the enemy. Love it! Also, I do need to try out my old mech infantry style with veterans fighting mounted on Chimera. Funniest bit of the game was when the priest took out the Wraithknight in close combat (well, Smash is good, and the beast was down to 2 wounds).

The second game was to try out updates to my AirCav. With the new Codex, I took out the Basilisk (was never intended for the list in the first place), and added a 2iC squad (Major Winters) who now has the Regimental Standard, a Master of Ordnance, an Officer of the Fleet. Without bodyguards, Straken's squad is now reduced to 5 guys plus a priest (all in Vendetta, works out nice). Since Straken's squad is relentless, they get 3 plasma guns, and his old medic stays in the squad (all that plasma might just hurt). The 2 squads that fly in with Straken are each equipped with 2 meltaguns, a heavy flamer, and a vet sergeant brandishing a power sword. The 3 squads starting on the ground with Major Winters now have heavy weapons - 2 squads with autocannon, 2 plasmaguns and a sniper, and the 3rd squad with missile launcher and 2 meltaguns.

This was against the same Eldar army and was a close loss. Again, the Master of Ordnance proved himself really valueable (and insanely heroic, calling down his last barrage on Eldar jetbikes just 8" south of his position). The heavy weapons and snipers work out nicely. I'm still not sure about the missile launcher though. Might just switch it to another autocannon, though modeling a missile launcher team advancing into position is nice too. The heavy flamers are awesome!!!! Now I need to find some points and upgrade at least one of those squads to Demolitons. I think the Officer of the Fleet can be released - he's got very limited value (and I prefer my own kitbashed models to the GW one). Funniest parts of this game was when a crashing and burning Vendetta ploughed straight into an Eldar War Walker, obliterating it. Next turn, a crashing and burning Crimson Hunter ploughed straight into an Eldar Vyper, obliterating that one too.

I didn't get the time to try out my Armored Company again, but that's fine. I had 2 awesome games!

Next gaming session, I'll try out the tweaks to my AirCav (hopefully with the additional models done), and my veteran mech infantry.

Keep them dice rolling!

Astra Militarum for my Catachans and Brandenbergers!

 

After the excruciating wait, the spanking new Astra Militarum codex is finally upon us! It's been a while since I've so eagerly awaited a new codex release. And I must say I'm real happy it's finally out - more for the comfort of knowing what's current, if nothing else.

For one, my AirCav boys  have changed a bit - for the better, in my opinion. It works out really nicely that the new Vendetta has been given a points increase and a transport capacity decrease. Especially because Bodyguards are gone, which greatly reduces Col Straken's (my warlord) HQ size. So now it's just him, the medic, 3 plasma gunners (because Straken's Relentless Determination, the squad can rapid fire and charge!), and a priest in a Vendetta. Straken is supported by 2 veteran squads flying in aboard the 2 Valkyries I have.

I've taken an additional new HQ, designated as Major Winters, 2iC. This unit is the key ground element, directing the squads already on ground, holding on to objectives and securing the LZ for Straken's airborne elements. The 2iC is barebones, save for the Regimental Standard and 2 advisors - Officer of the Fleet (who now does what the old Astropath used to do - in my opinion, more fitting actually), and Master of Ordnance (who is a cheap replacement - somewhat - of the Basilisk in the old list). There are 3 veteran squads on the ground, each with a missile launcher and some special weapons. So, at minimum, I'll just need to paint up 9 more models to bring the old list up to the new one. I'll be trying this out over the next couple of weeks, so we'll see how it works out.

What I did try was 2 games with my Brandenbergers. The first one uses an update of my classic Schutzen list, which has built a little tradition for itself since its inception in 2000. It's called the classic list because it's made up of a core assault infantry-heavy element (no heavy weapons), supported by a balanced list of equipment and weaponry, and updated each time a new codex comes out, new "standard" points sizes are set for games in the local community, or some cool new model is released.

So the current 1850pts classic 6th Schutzen which I tried out has a Company Command with Regimental Standard, 2 Commissars, 2 "Assault" Platoons (no heavy weapons) of 30 + 5 men each, 1 anti-tank platoon with 3 lascannons and 20 + 5 men, 2 Vendettas, an Assault Tank squadron (Executioner and Punisher, both with plasma sponsons) and a regular Tank Squadron (2 plain jane Russes). That's 102 men, 4 tanks and 2 flyers.

This army totally demolished an Eldar army, and quite efficiently too. Some of the nice things I noticed are definitely the orders. Fire on my Target makes it so much easier for my lascannons to take down Wave Serpents and Wraithknights trying to skulk behind cover. The cheaper "assault" tanks are definitely awesome, with the Executioner and Punisher living up to their namesakes in rather brutal style. And really, the points bump that the Vendetta got is really not painful at all - it is still the best air support in 40k in my book.

I also had to try out the new Tank Commander HQ choice - just so that I can field my 7th Panzer tank company, and the lovely new Hydra model. So I had the Tank Commander in a Vanquisher, plus another Vanquisher and a standard Russ in his squadron. I had an Assault Tank squadron of 2 Demolishers and an Executioner, a Tank Squadron of 3 standard Russes and a Hydra with camo netting for AA duty. I had 2 bare veteran squads for Troops (I need to find the points to give them Chimera - a bit more fluffy that way).

This army looked impressive, and with a lucky Seize the Initiative roll, demolished almost all of my opponent's Chaos Space Marine army in 2 turns. But his surviving Be'lakor and Tzeentch Daemon Prince almost destroyed my entire tank force. But I lucked out and a lone Leman Russ and infantryman survived the onslought, leaving the Tzeetch Prince wounded but still alive at the end of the game. After the game I noticed that we played this wrong - the new Hydra does not have its auto-targeting rules anymore! O well, we'll try again next time.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to try out other stuff with the new book - like Armored Sentinels, Engineseers, Ratlings ... a whole bunch of stuff.

Keep rolling them dice!

That Was Some Healthy Hobbying!

Last Friday's Hobby Nite was some kind of awesome. It started off on the right foot with a great meal and beers, and by the time we arrived at the Forge, we were raring to go. I especially like the look of the hordes of Astartes that greeted us at the Forge. Nice.

I had a bit of trouble with focus, and took out 11 Black Knights and a couple of Land Speeders to add to my Ravenwing armory. I also took out my WIP Heldrake, but did not do any work with it. It's coming along yes.

Anyways, I took the last Land Speeder to assemble, and got that done, right before my first game with Hakim's deadly Eldar. Fielding my new Ravenwing list, I must say I had loads of fun with it. It's super-fast and hard-hitting. Salvo 4 twin-linked bolters on bikes are super-deadly! I think just one squad wiped out an entire Dire Avengers squad, mercilessly gunning them down. At any rate, I still got outgunned and lost the game. And had great fun too!

The next game was against Aiman's Balakor/Daemon Prince/Ahriman Thousand Sons army. This one was pretty one-sided as my bikes got torn apart really fast. Completely forgot a lot of special stuff like Preffered Enemy and the Skyfire on one of the objectives I held.

We were going for a second round when the Lord AK arrived. We had prebooked this game, so I unpacked my AirCav for a fight with his Raven Guard. It was pretty fun, and funny, and the AirCav managed to truimph in this one. He's written a batrep with pics and all, you can check it out at http://ak-skullthrone.blogspot.sg/2014/03/flight-of-valkyries-raven-guard-vs.html

Anyways, it was pretty late by the time we got done, and after the sumptuous meal, beers, hobbying and 3 games, I was beat, retired home and went to bed with a smile. All hobby nites should be this awesome.

Keep rolling them dice!

Some painting, some procuring, lots, LOTS of dice rolling!

That was a pretty awesome Hobby Night! Starting off pretty innocently, and in a rather disciplined manner I'd add, with a spot of painting to finish up the Tzeentch Terminator Champion - the last model in the favored terminator squad that's been WIP since before plastic Chaos termies were ever invented, and Codex Chaos 3.5 Rubric terminators were the scourge of the galaxy.

A most fantastic excuse to stop painting came along very quickly when I discovered I had forgotten to pack my favorit old school brown ink to wash all that gold. At any rate, stocks had arrived at Hobby Forge, and I had some procurement business to do in the name of the Emperor. To which a transaction was promptly done, resulting in me becoming the proud owner of the Escalation book (finally) and 2 Land Speeders (for my Ravenwing expansion).

Jo's Grey Knights were up for a game, so I dutifully unpacked my AirCav in an 1850-point Relic mission. The Grey Knights were beautifully hobbied, from the nice paint scheme, to the very liberal use of magnets to ensure that all his models are always able to swap equipment and weapons and turn up WYSIWYG. The battle turned out one-sided, as he had very limited AA capability, but there were many hilarious moments, quite typical of 40k. Like when the surviving 2 Guardsmen in a melee with a GK monster just refused to give up (double-1), or the volley in which snap shots hit twice as much as normal-BS shots. It's clear not that with AirCav, the tendency so far is either they win big, or lose most gloriously.

I've been working on my Tzeentch termies off and on for the past couple of weeks, and assembled the Heldrake too, so I was dead curious how my new Thousand Sons list would do. Enter Dann, with his Deldar, in an urban Scouring. I must say that I'm a little more than out of touch with my Thousand Sons (haven't played them in a year) and made several nube mistakes (like outflanking Rubric squads on foot and realizing they can't run, etc). The battle was actually going not too bad, when Ahriman promptly turned into a Spawn, and I decided that the rest of the Sons should just go home then, as they were way too far from any objectives.

Doc Selvam and his White Scars-Space Wolves coalition came on next, and we duked it out rather bloodily (he did include several Space Wolves) in the same urban setting. The early part of the battle was quite painful for Doc, as his initial wave of drop pod infanry and dreadnought were wiped out by concentrated fire and a spirited Terminator charge. Things started to look better as more loyalist reinforcements turned up, and as my armor refused to work (a touch too many 1's). The Heldrake was amazing, and saved me from being annihilated, even though he arrived late (-1 on my reserve rolls). In the end, both sides were left with very few models (Loyalist survivors: 2 flyers, 3 bikes; Thousand Sons survivors: Ahriman, Heldrake, Predator) and nobody held any objectives, but the Sons narrowly won 2-1. That was indeed epic.

Next time, I'm going to try a list without the Land Raider, and see how annoying outflanking Thousand Sons in Rhinos can be. Or I might just bring in the Brandenburgers, with a Baneblade or three.

On another note, last week was also the first time I had a proper wargame with my son, in a FOW small battle that saw his British infantry tabling my panzergrenadiers.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to the many projects I've set myself up for. Next update, I'll show some newly painted models.