Exploring the Current Thousand Sons - Third Iteration

What excites me about the current Thousand Sons is that it packs a punch while still being flavorful, with its over-reliance on magic, it's single-mindedness automata, and how battlefield tactics slant towards deception. Did I mention it's really flavorful? Change agents, that's what we are.

Before I go on, I'd like to share my personal criteria for my Thousand Sons army lists. Just because ...:

1. Must be built on a core of Rubric marines. As far as possible, each Rubric unit must be "favored" (a concept that no longer has rules at the squad level) with 9 models or multiples of 9.
2. No Cultists, or them new-fangled beasty cultist wannabe things.
3. No Daemons. I spent a few years before this book came out fielding a Thousand Sons army with a daemon allied detachment (1 Lord of Change and a pack of Pink Horrors). It was a really strong list, but I really do prefer no daemons at all, if possible (on another note, a Tzeentch daemons list looks quite stupidly strong). Daemon engines are exempted (because I do really like the Defiler and Heldrake models).
4. No Magnus. Because I don't know why he would bother playing in my house or local store (I just got over justifying to myself why Ahriman would bother to do the same, and that took me a few years of deep earnest conversations with myself).
5. No non-Tzeentch/non-Thousand Sons allies (though I might just allow a Shadowsword, because my ancient Armorcast one is begging to be Tzeentched up - but definitely no Knights of any persuasion).

So in the first game I had with the current book (it was really new then), I fielded the list that could be deployed fastest as we were rushing - Ahriman, Exalted Sorcerer, 5 Occult Terminators in Land Raider, squad of 8 Rubric marines (couldn't go 9 because they had to share their transport with the 2 lead sorcerers), squad of 9 Rubric marines on foot, Heldrake and a Land Raider.

That army faced a White Scars army that had 3 Land Raiders, a couple of Razorbacks, assault termies and Drop Pod-borne Astartes. With the help of some nasty Heretech spells which made easy work of the loyalist armor, the White Scars were almost wiped out for minimal Thousand Sons losses.

In my second game, I decided to try a funny list that uses the Astral Grimoire - Ahriman, Exalted Sorcerer, Sorcerer, a squad of 18 Rubric marines, 5 Occult Terminators in Land Raider, Heldrake, Las-Pred.

This army faced a Death Watch army with a scary Watchmaster, a squad of Deathwatch vets, a Deathwatch bike squad, a Deathwatch ven Dread, 3 Ultramarines Tactical squads in Drop Pods, 3 Ultramarines Terminator squads and an Ultramarine Land Speeder. Lucky for me it was a Kill Points game - the only survivors from the loyalists was the Watchmaster (who killed Ahriman and his sorcerers) and the Drop Pods. Thousand Sons were left with 4 Rubric marines, 1 Terminator, the Heldrake and the Land Raider.

Iteration No.3

This iteration of my Thousand Sons army expands on the first list. Rhinos are still invaluable, even after millennia of service on both sides of the divide. And especially so for my slow and purposeful Rubricae. And the fact that Ahriman can cast his witchfire spells from the handy top hatch hasn't gone amiss. So 1 of the Land Raiders had to go.

Another change from the previous lists is that I finally got around to assembling my Occult Terminators (I had been using my old converted Rubric Terminators as nicely painted proxies), and just had to put in the really nicely casted soulreaper autocannon and helfyer missile rack. What's another 50 points between friends?

Thousand Sons War Cabal (1850 points):

Ahriman, Arch-Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons

Sobek Sekmet, Exalted Sorcerer - mastery level 3, Seer's Bane

5 Scarab Occult Terminators - soulreaper autocannon, helfyre missile rack

Land Raider - dozer blades

8 Thousand Sons marines

Rhino - dozer blades

9 Thousand Sons marines

Rhino - dozer blades

Heldrake

Predator - lascannons, dozer blades

This time I faced a Ravenwing army that's just fresh from being awarded Best Loyalist Army in a recent local tourney. It had something like:

Chaplain on bike - mace of redemption

6 Ravenwing Black Knights (commmand squad) - apothecary, standard bearer

6 Ravenwing Black Knights

6 Ravenwing bikes - 2 meltaguns, sgt w powerfist

6 Ravenwing bikes - 2 meltaguns, sgt w powerfist

6 Ravenwing bikes - 2 gravguns (don't remember if the sgt had a powefist)

2 Ravenwing attack bikes - multimelta

2 Ravenwing attack bikes - multimelta

Ravenwing Land Speeder Typhoon

Ravenwing Land Speeder Typhoon

Ravenwing Land Speeder Typhoon

Ravenwing Dark Shroud

It's actually not too different from my own Ravenwing army. We rolled Spoils of War, Night Fight is on, and Thousand Sons got first turn.

Deployment

The battle was fought over a desolate landscape, with blown-out ruins, sparse dead forests and hills. It was perfect country for speed and manouver.

The scenario specified Hammer & Anvil deployment, and the Ravewing amassed in 2 flanks - on my right flank, the stronger wing of  their army anchored amidst some ruins, while on my left flank they took advantage of a craggy hill.

Having far less units to deploy, I decided to take advantage of the width-wise deployment (which meant that my 2 flanks are not far apart), and spread my army, using cover just in case he seized the initiative - Terminators in their Land Raider on the left flank behind the wrecked Rhino, Rubric squad in their Rhino behind the ruins in the center, the Predator on the main avenue and next to a ruin facing down the loyalist bikers, and Ahriman and Sekmet with their Rubricae in their Rhino behind the Predator.

As was predicted, the loyalists scouted forwards to close the range, the squad with the gravguns to the fore, while their long-range missile Land Speeders hung around the back center of the field, ready to lend support for either flank.

Turn 1

The battle began quietly enough as my Predator turned left and sped towards the center of the Thousand Sons' line.

As the Rhino in the center lurched forwards onto the main thoroughfare, its top hatch opened to reveal Asthmus the aspiring sorcerer, who unleashed a cascading Breathe of Chaos spell on the lead Ravenwing bike squad, nearly wiping it out. The Rhino bearing Lord Ahriman also advanced slightly, the Arch-Sorcerer casting deadly Psychic Shrieks from his Rhino's fire point, which finished his aspiring sorcerer's job, and severely damaging another squad.

Then, both Rhinos retreated rearwards, keeping a safe distance from surviving loyalist meltaguns (shooting phase flat out moves - my opponent accused me of "Eldar cheese!").

On the left flank, the Land Raider advanced slightly and pivoted, its assault ramps hitting the ground hard as elite Scarab Occult Terminators disembarked from its bowels. The Scarab Occult Sorcerer loosed his Psychic Shriek attacks on the nearest Ravenwing bike squad, felling a couple of loyalist bikers, then his squad's autocannon and missiles, combined with the Land Raider's weapons, opened up on the Land Speeders in the rear, but thanks to the cover of night and some inhuman jinking manouvers, only 1 Land Speeder was glanced.

In response, the Ravewing line surged forwards. The attack bikes on my left flank opened fire on the Land Raider, but were too far to gain optimal effectiveness. Nevertheless, they did manage to score 1 glancing hit.

The surviving bikers opened fire and charged the Occult Terminators. The Terminators' overwatch fire felled one of the bikers, even as the impact of Ravenwing bikes on Terminator armor killed one of the Terminators. The Occult Sorcerer bellowed a challenge which was dutifully accepted by the powerfist wielding veteran sergeant, who was duly slain by a combination of the sorcerer's hatred and high-strength stave. The other Occult Terminators put to the sword the other bikers, and the lone survivor only just managed to escape with his life, speeding to a crook behind the hill for safety.

On the right flank and center, the Ravenwing line barreled forwards, now led by the Black Knights at the tip of the advance. Ravenwing shooting was ineffective as most of their guns were not in range, and the missile-bearing Land Speeders were jinking and could not aim their weapons to effect.

Turn 2

The Heldrake failed to appear, which was much regretted, as the Ravenwing mass in the center offered the juiciest of targets.

Asthmus' Rhino advanced towards the leading Black Knights. Once again emerging from the Rhino's top hatch, his Breathe of Chaos spell obliterated 4 of the proud elite bikers. Lord Ahriman followed up with multiple Psychic Shriek attacks but failed to wound the surviving Knights. Then Asthmus' Rhino went flat out forwards towards the right of the Sons' flank (it really looked like a drive-by shooting), while Ahriman's Rhino fell back once again. 

On the left, the Occult Terminators advanced towards the nearest Attack Bikes, while their Sorcerer unleashed Psychic Shriek on the Ravenwing Command squad in the center, to no effect. Inferno bolter and heavy weapons fire from the terminators wounded one of the Attack Bikes before the Terminators' charge finished them off.

The Land Raider and Predator, which by now had manouvered to the Sons' left flank, focused their fire on the Land Speeders, destroying one, and forcing another to jink.

Intent on revenge, Ravenwing bikers on the right flank sped up towards Asthmus' Rhino, even as the 2 surviving Black Knights approached that Rhino from the other side. Melta fire made easy work of the Rhino, blowing it apart, the blast killing 1 of the Rubricae inside. The Knights opened up with their Talons, easily felling another 4 Rubricae, before charging in to wipe out Asthmus and his squad in a flurry of Corvus hammer attacks (this was a really bad series of saving throws - didn't roll a single save for Asthmus' squad).

The Chaplain and his Command Squad peeled off from the center and headed toward the Occult Terminators, guns blazing before charging in. The Scarab Occult Sorcerer locked in mortal combat with the Chaplain in a deadly challenge, both champions wounding the other. The Knights of the Command squad felled one of the Occult Terminators. 

Turn 3

With a Banshee wail, the Heldrake roared onto the battlefield, its deadly unearthly fire wiping out the Ravenwing bike squad on the Sons' right flank, partially avenging Asthmus and his Rubricae.

On the left flank, the Land Raider pivoted and opened fire on a Land Speeder, damaging it despite the pilot's wild jinking.

Meanwhile, both the Predator and Ahriman's Rhino fell back to fulfill a Hold the Line order.

In the on-going melee between the Ravenwing Command squad and the Occult Terminators, the Sorcerer killed the Chaplain with his glowing force stave. And thanks to the blessing of Tzeentch, the rending Corvus Hammers could not get past the Terminators' ward saves.

The Ravenwing are fast running out of men. The 2 surviving Black Knights on the right flank came around the ruin there to close with Ahriman's Rhino. The Dark Shroud peeled off from close support of the Command squad, which was still in melee, to execute a risky manouver amongst the center ruins to capture an objective.

On the left flank, the 2 surviving attack bikes closed with the Land Raider and opened fire with multimeltas at point-blank range. Tzeentch was smiling on this Land Raider as it was only stunned with 2 hull points remaining.

The 2 surviving Land Speeders also fired at the Land Raider, to no effect.

In the melee between the Ravenwing Command squad and the Occult Terminators, the challenge now was between the Black Knight champion and the Scarab Occult Sorcerer, a duel which ended in neither side getting past the other's armor. However, another Occult Terminator was hewn by the flailing Corvus hammers.

Turn 4

With a quiet suddenness, the Heldrake banked sharply to port and attacked the Dark Shroud with a Vector Strike that left the skimmer immobilized. 

Ahriman's Rhino sped forwards towards the ruin in the center where the Dark Shroud sat damaged, the Arch-Sorcerer's repeated Psychic Shrieks finally slaying the last 2 Black Knights on the right.

The Predator pivoted and let loose its lascannons on the grounded Dark Shroud blowing it up in a fiery explosion (I needed that to happen to seize an objective - one of the downsides of not having ObSec Rubrics in this detachment).

Meanwhile, the Land Raider snap-fired all guns into the oncoming attack bikes, destroying one, and wounding the other.

The drawn-out melee continued, with both champions failing to wound one another. But the last surviving Occult Terminator finally succumbed to the repeated rending Corvus attacks.

The last surviving Ravenwing attack bike approached even nearer to its Land Raider target, but missed its mark (ikr, point-blank range, and you miss. All those years of dedication, prayer and training ...). The Land Speeders kept up their fire at the same target, and managed to score a glancing hit despite the Land Raider's thick hide.

Sensing his moment of glory, the last surviving Ravenwing biker from the very first charge decided to lend a hand to his Command squad, who had been locked in combat with the Occult Terminators for some time now. Redlining his engine, he sped headlong into the lone surviving enemy Terminator, killing the vile champion in the impact. Expecting congratulatory prayers, the biker was much chastised by the Black Knight champion, for the champion had intended to capture the enemy sorcerer alive (it was an objective my opponent had been holding onto for awhile, hoping to score it with the Sorcerer).

Turn 5

The marauding Heldrake descended rapidly into hover mode and skimmed forwards over the battlefield. The Land Raider advanced towards the right flank, climbing over the battlefield debris, and nearly throwing a track (thank God for dozer blades, what a great investment). The tank opened fire on one of the Land Speeders, but once again the loyalist skimmer was able to avoid the incoming shots. Meanwhile, the Heldrake went flat out into enemy territory, capturing an objective. 

Ahriman's Rhino moved forwards in the left flank, and the Rubric squad with the 2 attached Sorcerers disembarked, advancing on foot towards the Ravenwing Command squad. While his deadly magicks killed the last remaining Attack Bike, the Arch-Sorcerer's Psychic Shrieks were unable to harm the loyalist Command squad Knights. Sekmet the Exalted Sorcerer cast Invisibility onto himself, his Lord and the accompanying Rubricae.

As the Rubricae advanced, they opened fire on the Ravenwing Comand squad with their inferno bolters, Sekmet also calling in a fiery blast due to his being a Lord of the Silver Tower. The Predator joined in the concentrated firepower into the elite loyalist bikers, but after the dust settled, none of the loyalists were harmed.

The Ravenwing Command squad took the bait and roared towards Ahriman's squad at breakneck speed, Plasma Talons rapid-firing, but unable to draw a bead on most of the Invisible Rubricae,  killing just one.

Meanwhile, the Ravenwing Land Speeders switched targets and fired their krak missiles at the hovering Heldrake, but the Daemon-engine was able to easily jink out of harm's way.

Then in a final act of desperation, the proud Black Knights of the Ravenwing Command squad charged into the Invisible Rubricae, their bikes' impact killing 1 Rubricae. Sekmet the Exalted Sorcerer challenged the champion and weilding his Seer's Bane, easily hewed the Black Knight champion and the entire Ravenwing Command squad in one graceful sweep of the possessed daemon weapon.

And with that last deadly strike, Tzeentch truimphs again!

Aftermath

The Thousand Sons won the battle 10-6, including First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker. As was expected, the Thousand Sons are not very adept at scoring objectives, given the small number of units in the army, and the fact that in this detachment, they don't have ObSec. In retrospect, it was a good call to give each squad a transport vehicle. Rhinos ftw!

Consistent with the first 2 battles, the enemy was severely punished. The Ravenwing was left with only 1 bike and 2 Land Speeders surviving. The Thousand Sons lost squad Asthmus and their Rhino, though the Land Raider was 1 hull point away from being wrecked. The Land Raider performed well as a fire magnet, to be sure.

The Scarab Occult Terminators were really tough, and while I only managed to use their new ranged weapons twice before being locked into combat for all eternity, I think 50 points for 2 krak and 4 S5 AP3 rending shots on a super-tough fearless Terminator platform is pretty good. And the 2+/3++ (thanks to Force being a blessing) saves are just amazing.

Breathe of Chaos, even coming from a lowly aspiring sorcerer, is insanely good. Especially against the Ravenwing, who can survive most shooting pretty well.

This game is the first time I didn't forget to re-rolls 1's To Hit, and the first time I used Lord of the Silver Tower (though 3+ re-rolling jink saves kinda made that moot). It's also the first time I saw the Seer's Bane really used to full effect - it is one deadly piece of accursed kit!

I noticed that in all 3 battles thus far, my Thousand Sons faced only their loyalist erstwhile brethren - White Scars, Deathwatch, Ultramarines, Dark Angels. It would be interesting to see how they would fair against xenos (Eldar and Tau are going to be really tough, I expect) and other Chaos forces, though I would love to face a Space Wolves force!

As always, the Thousand Sons' truimph was with a combination of deadly magicks, manouver and close assault.

Totally looking forward to the next one.

Keep them dice rolling ...

7th Ed Baptism of Fire!

Finally got a game of 7th Ed in. And I must say it was a blast! The Tactical Objectives and Psychic Phase makes for a very different flavor of 40k. A lot of myths and preconceptions were debunked, though this is just based on the one game I've had so far. Certainly different from what we're used to - and for me that means all the previous editions since 3rd.

We played the first Maelstrom of War mission: Cleanse and Control. In this mission, there are 6 objective markers, and in each turn each player needs to have 3 Tactical Objective cards. The mission specifies Vanguard Strike deployment. My oppenent Dom chose the nice Cityfight table, which was pretty cool. Been awhile since I played on that one.

I used the last Thousand Sons list I built in 6th Ed: Ahriman, Lord Ka'Kaa the Lord of Change, 2 favored Thousand Sons squads (one with Rhino), 1 pack of Pink Horrors, 1 Heldrake, 1 Land Raider, 1 Defiler and 1 Predator (autocannon, heavy bolters). There's a total of 5 psykers in the army, with a potential to generate 10+d6 warp charges in total. I got lucky with Ahriman, who managed to get Invisibility and Iron Arm, on top of Prescience and Psychic Shriek (the Tzeentch Primaris was free). Lord Ka'Kaa also had Prescience. However no one got Doombolt - pity, as I would have liked to try the new rules for beam powers.

Dom fielded his Dark Angels army, led by Master Belial, 2 squads of Assault Terminators (thunder hammer, storm shield), 1 Dark Angels Veteran Squad (meltaguns) in Drop Pod, 1 Dark Angels Tactical Squad (plasma gun) in Drop Pod, 1 squadron of 3 Ravenwing Land Speeder Typhoons, 1 Land Raider and 1 Land Raider Crusader.

I'm not going to give a blow-by-blow batrep, but just to share my thoughts on the new game (and it felt like a new game too).

1. Psychic Phase is not so scary after all ...
There was a lot of noise about the new Psychic Phase, and honestly, I think it's really more hype than anything else. My Thousand Sons army can generate 10+d6 Warp Charge per turn. While it's not as uber-extreme as you can take it, it certainly is fairly above average. On top of that, with sorcerers like Ahriman and the Lord of Change, plus free Tzeentch Primaris for the Thousand Sons sorcerers, my psychic power list was pretty long. And as I mentioned, I got lucky with my rolls, getting gems like Iron Arm and Invisibility.

However, casting powers is now not as predictable. Combined with abysmal Warp Charge rolls (I think the highest I rolled was 3), I had 11-13 power dice to play with when all my psykers were still alive. Still looks decent right? Well, the reality is that master sorcerer Ahriman hogged ALL of my Psychic Phases. Casting Prescience, Iron Arm and Invisibility on himself and his squad pretty much sucked up all the power dice I had. Every turn. All the other sorcerers just watched and lent their Mastery Levels to the dice pool. All those millennia of psychic training gone to waste ...

So rest assured that except for some really purpose-designed psychic armies, the Psychic Phase is not as scary as it sounds. In fact, I really like that it neatly streamlines all psychic activity into its very own part of each turn. Having said that, there are a couple of scary things with this psychic thing ...

2. Invisibility IS scary!
I know much have been written about the new Invisibility. But until I actually tried it out I didn't quite appreciate how amazingly scary it is. At 2 Warp Charges, you need at least 5 dice ro reliably cast it. But allowing only Snap Shots and 6's to hit in close combat against Invisible units means you have units that are extremely hard to kill. Ahriman and his squad were charged by thunder-hammer-storm-shield Assault Terminators, losing only only 2 Rubricae while wiping out the Termies. And the 2 turns that I failed my Invisibility rolls were enough to wipe out Ahriman's squad by shooting and assault, leaving Ahriman alone in a challenge against a Deathwing veteran sergeant.

3. Perils of the Warp IS scary ...
Ahriman actually suffered Perils of the Warp and rolled a '1' on the table. Luckily he passed his Leadership Test, and just lost 1 wound to it. Had he failed, he would have been sucked into the Warp, and perhaps taking some of his squad with him too!

4. I need to go back to Flying Monstrous Creature (FMC) school
My expensive Lord of Change, the great Lord Ka'Kaa, was one scary FMC with one lesser and two greater rewards and also a Mastery Level 3 Tzeentch greater daemon. But with some subtle changes in 7th Ed, I only managed to use him in some very passive roles. He did contribute 3 Warp Charges every turn. He took out 1 hull point from a Land Speeder. He achieved 1 tactical objective. That's it. I guess he didn't do too badly. But compared to his fearsome deeds of old, it didn't seem like much. I'll need to relearn how to use him more effectively next time.

5. Light skimmers die slightly easier now
I love light skimmers like Land Speeders and Vypers. In 6th Ed, my squadron of 3 Vypers or 3 Land Speeders tend to survive battles because the 5+ jink combined with 6 hull points per squadron is always better than it looks. But now, you'd have to make the choice - Snap Fire next turn, or jink? Not always a straight-forward decision.

6. The Heldrake nerfed? Nahhhh ...
There was also a lot of whining about the new FAQ limiting the Heldrake's arc of fire. I frankly did not see the problem at all. This mean flying dude is still a mean flying dude, frying all kinds of loyalist targets almost every turn. Still love it! Still a scary flyer!

7. Tactical Objectives makes it an entirely new game.
And this is no exaggeration. Most players have been trained through countless battles and numerous editions to focus on making sure objectives are achieved before the game ends. This usually ends up in games that typically see shooty armies waiting for killy armies to come to them, or some variation thereof. And a lot of grabbing objectives at the very last minute.

With Tactical Objectives, your army really needs to be flexible. Mobiliy becomes extremely important. The bulk of your forces might be in one corner, just when all the objectives you need to achieve are in another, etc. I'd guess that armies with only one battle plan, or one style of play, would suffer greatly. You really need to have an expanded playbook to handle all kinds of situations.

Tactical Objectives really emphasizes manouver and positioning. It changes how yo
u use your units. In the game I played, my Defiler only fired once at the very last turn. Before that he was too busy achieving objectives. Balancing holding onto a single objective, while at the same time being ready to support other units or grab another objective, all makes for some really interesting tactical challenges.

I find it pretty awesome. Though I must admit there was a point it got a bit too random.

At the very last turn, I was already losing the game. In fact, I thought it was already lost. Both armies were battered. The Dark Angels only had Belial, 4 Termies, an immobilized Land Raider Crusader and 2 Drop Pods left. I was down to Ahriman, Lord Ka'Kaa, 10 Horrors, the Defiler and the Predator. The last Tactical Objective card I drew gives me d3 Victory Points if I controlled at least 3 objective markers. At that point Dom had 9VPs to my 7. Controlling the 3 objective markers was easy enough with the Horrors, the Defiler and Lord Ka'Kaa. I need to roll a 3 or 4 to draw the game, and a 5+ to win. So I rolled the dice. And '5' came up.

While I do feel bad for Dom for snatching the win by ONE lucky dice roll, we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was simply a fun game. Even my Aspiring Sorcerer that became a Spawn enjoyed it!

Looking forward to more!

The Return of Lord Amun Seth and Lord Ka'Kaa.

Last night saw the return of Lord Amun Seth, Daemon Prince of Tzeentch. Little is known of the origins of Amun Seth. Some say he was a Thousand Sons Sorcerer. Others even dare suggest that he was once a Librarian of the Dark Angels. Still others profess that he was actually a xeno-sorcerer of the Eldar.

Still he returned to the fray. Along with the reappearance of His High Emminence Lord Ka'Kaa, the Lord of Change. Both had at one time or another led my Thousand Sons armies into battle, but last night was the first time that both Lords fought together. And it was pretty insane.

I built the list because I hadn't touched these models in ages, and also because I wanted to try a little daemonic theme in the army. So out goes the Predator and Land Raider, and in come the Defiler and Obliterators. And with the Heldrake flying around and the necessary pack of Horrors, the only non-daemons were the Thousand Sons Rubricae and Sorcerers.

Talking about Horrors, I've had them since the old Daemons codex, but didn't do anything with them. In fact, I had only assembled 9 of them (favored - ya, ol skool). Fortunately, I was able to find the sprues and assembled the 10th Horror necessary for the minimum unit size in the current codex. After hastily sanding their bases and spraying black undercoat, the Horrors got a super-fast 5-minute paint-job. It's by no means painted, but at least they look like something like Horrors in last night's game.

The Heldrake itself saw a lot of progress. I'm almost done cleaning up the basecoats. Next week I'll probably finish the model and hopefully the base too. And I'll set to work to finish the Horrors properly.

The game itself was pretty scary. With both the Lord Amun Seth and Lord Ka'Kaa being Mastery Level 3 Sorcerers and flying around causing havoc, I can see why a lot of people use multiple FMCs. All my flying creatures died by the end of the battle, but there really wasn't much left of the enemy too. And my Troops were hardly harmed. We'll give this another spin soon, hopefully fully-painted next time.

Keep rolling them dice!

2013 - Not a Bad Hobby Year After All.

With very limited time available for the hobby, it seemed at first that 2013 was going to be the worst year in a long time as far as my personal wargames hobby is concerned. Funny enough, it turns out that this is yet more proof that fact and perception are often-times at complete odds with each other.

The fact is, I actually did more painting and hobbying in 2013 compared to 2012 and 2011. I did play less games, and attended less events, but the personal hobbying was not too shabby at all.

I guess the highlight would be the completion (finally!) of II Catachan Rgt's Air Mobile Detachment (a.k.a. AirCav), an army that actually started with much fervor with the first Valkyrie completed in 2009, but got completely derailed as I finished off several other projects in between. But largely thanks to the first Throwdown earlier in the year, the project was given a huge kick and restarted with gusto! And now, version 1 is done! I've got version 2 on the cards, but I'll wait for the new codex before doing more work on them (it might turn out I'd have to use the army as a counts-as Elysian list if some of the rumors are true - but we'll see).

 

So in 2013, I actually finished:
- 36 IG aircav infantry (almost all converted)
- 1 Col Straken
- 1 Uriah Jacobus preacher
- 1 Astropath
- 3 Vendetta
- 1 Valkyrie
- 1 Basilisk (happy with the simple conversion for this guy)
- 1 Crimson Hunter
- 6 Eldar Jet Bikes (in one (long) intense hobby session, I might add)

On top of that, I started (but obviously did not finish):
- 1 Eldar Warlock on jetbike (actually, this guy is almost done - maybe another hour or so)
- 1 Ilyic the super Pathfinder
- 1 Dark Reaper Exarch (converted from bits + OOP Eldar warrior)
- 1 Nephilim
- 1 Helbrute
- 1 Heldrake
- 6 Ravenwing Black Knights
- 5 Ravenwing Command Squad Black Knights
- 30 Deathwing Terminators (including command)
- 23 Dark Angels Space Marines (including command)
- 1 Officer of the Fleet

It's not too shabby, given the circumstances.

Now on to the lowlights. I guess the worst part of my hobby year was actually missing Legio's big move to its shiny new premises at Hobby Forge. That was a real bummer. The next one has to be the fact that this was the first year in a long time that I did not play in a tournament. And this was in a year with a bumper crop of tournaments! And I just realized that my proud 6th Brandenberg Imperial Guard never left the shelves all year! That is something that must be rectified this year!

Anyways, I'm not going to dwell in doldrums so early in the day. I am looking forward to 2014. The first project in mind is a quick revisit of Master Ahriman and the Thousand Sons. I'm looking to finish up my first ever Heldrake, the 1.5 models left to paint to complete the Favored Rubric Terminator squad, and the awesome Land Raider that's been WIP for 6 years (I think). After that, it's a bit more work with the Ravenwing - finish up the Black Knights and the Command Squad, and add 3 Land Speeders to the army.

We'll see how far that takes me. Here's hoping that I don't get TOO over-distracted (e.g. WW1 Brit-themed IG with steel helmets, fixed bayonets and tanks that look like Malcadors ... or a Thunderbolt (or two) ... or an expansion of the seedling of the Tzeentch daemons in my collection ... or a 28mm Napoleonic army ...)

Cheers to 2013! Cheers to 2014!
Happy New Year guys!
Keep them dice rolling ...

Thousand terminators - progress as of Merdeka Day!

Now we have 5 of these painted up. I haven't based them yet because I want to make sure I match the rest of the army, and so just decided to do it later all at once (I might very well regret this later, but it shouldn't be a big deal). The other thing not done yet is the Thousand Sons decal on the right shoulder.

I've got 4 more to go, including the Champion with chainfist and Tzeentch icon. Looking forward to get this squad done. About time, really.

Finally, paint touches Thousand Sons termies

I assembled a favoured squad of these guys some 5-6 years or more ago (can't remember exactly when). The Space Marine plastic termie box set was new, Chaos Space Marines Codex 3.5 was running rampant, Thousand Sons terminators were actually Thousand Sons rubric marines in terminator armor and there was no such thing as Chaos plastic termies (and certainly no such thing as termicide squads - heresy!)... ah, the good old days.

Anyways, I took a break from my Catachans to paint these 9 termies of Tzeentch - because I'll need them in October's Ghemehaal Annihilation campaign at Legio. And I suddenly remembered that I totally forgot how to paint Thousand Sons. Anyways, using a couple of my old rubric marines as guide, I started on this test subject.

I must admit, my assembly could have been cleaner (the perils of hobbying in the darkness of Balau), but it was fun to paint anyways. I kinda stopped at this point - discovered that I don't have any Dark Angels Green left. Very important for the gems, lenses and power weapon. Tomorrow, I shall pick up a pot of this all-important and finish this dude up - and start on the rest of his cohorts.