Thunda Mutha!

The Catachan Basilisk Thunda Mutha managed to bag votes at last night's heavy support Throwdown. I was amazed - really didn't expect that, considering that the night before I had a matt varnish spray fog up disaster on the vehicle.

I had to brush some gloss varnish over most of the affected areas, repaint some bits and went back to the matt spray to rescue the model. In the process, one of the shovels stuck in the back of the crew compartment broke off.

But I guess the rescue job was good enough. I'll need to go back and finish the crew for the beast. But that will be much later - after the army is done. 

I also managed to have a great pre-hobby nite drinks session w Jeff and Khairul. Haven't done that in a long time. And it was just truly awesome to sit back and enjoy the cold beverages and awesome company.

Talking about cold drinks and nice people, we had the honor of the Doc visiting us all the way from Penang. He brought his ol' skool White Scars Vindicator for the Throwdown, his White Scars army, his Ogre Kingdoms army and 6 packs of cold goodness! What an awesome dude!

My Defenders of Haran rag-tag vehicle-less Eldar army under Eldrad himself took on the White Scars from the north and managed a win. Then Faizal's servants of slimy smelly papa nurgle force took on the Eldar. Eldrad managed to pull off a victory again! 

There were some funny moments in both games, but I think the 2 funniest involved the last standing Striking Scorpion. After his squad was shot to bits by enemy Obliterators and Terminators, he was charged by swarms if shambling zombies. He held on bravely and was eventually rescued by a squad of Harlequins.

The zombies were wiped out swiftly, and the Harlequins in turn fell to the multiple flamers of the Oblits. And so it was that the lone Scorpion drew his chainsword, turned to face the Nurgle Lord and his Terminator retinue, and bellowed in the calmest of voices only an Eldar Aspect Warrior can muster. "You shall not pass!"

Straken makes it in the nick of time! True Cav style!

It was quite exhilirating speeding down the highway from the airport to make it to last night's throwdown. I had already missed the Elites one, and I really didn't want to miss out on the HQ throwdown.

And so I was such a happy dude when I managed to arrive, unpack and set-up Colonel Straken and his Command Squad about 20 minutes before time's up! And while everybody had already voted, it was still a great feeling to know that Straken made it! In the nick of time!

I also managed to put in a last League game. My Ravenwing was on fire last night, quite brutally pounding Faizal's Nurgle marines. My dide rolls were just amazing (incredible number of jink saves were made), and Faizal's dice were just as amazingly bad! (even by my standards!). Anyways, it was pretty fun, but we decided to not count it officially for the league.

Here's looking forward to the heavy support throwdown!

See you guys!

Season 4 kicks off with a bang! ... and my 'ead 'urts ...

Last night's Hobby Night was truly awesome. It was the second instalment of Legio Throwdown, and you can plainly see the rising standards of the hobby hereabouts. Goh's Night Lords won the night, and well-deserved too. Go to http://legiomalaysia.blogspot.com/2013/02/what-night.html to check out his awesome-looking squad.

My Ravenwing with the shiny new codex and 7 shiny new models (6 Black Knights and a Nephilim) took to the field in the kick-off of the 40k League Season 4 - and I actually played 3 games last night! Yes, my 'ead 'urts after that, but it was worth it.

First game was against Alvin's Blood Angels. The battle was really cagey for the first few turns - I wouldn't get close because he would tear me up in close combat, he didn't want to approach because the Ravenwing gunline would cut him to ribbons (or so he thought). But when the Nephilim took out his Land Speeder and scored First Blood for Ravenwing, the BA line surged forwards. It was the first time I saw the Black Knights in action, and their plasma talons ripped apart a BA assault squad, but left 3 standing. The turning point was when the BA assault terminators waded into 3 of my units and killed 'em all. The rest was history - victory to the BA.

The second game was against Subhan's awesome-looking uber-shooty Necrons. Amazingly, it's my first ever game against any Necron army since the Necron codex came out - and I must say they are pretty strong. Once again, Ravenwing scored First Blood (first oil???) when an outflanking bike squad and attack bike destroyed 2 of those Spidey thingies. The Black Knights cut down the Necron Lord's scarab escort before 2 bike squads assaulted the same. But a combination of tactical errors, great moves by the xenos, screwy dice rolls and the amazing xenos firepower won the day for the xenos. The proliferation of S7 and S6 weapons made my T5 bikes feel like T3.

The third game was against Faizal's great-looking Space Wolves army, which was also uber-shooty. Drastically changed tactics for this one, sending ahead attack bikes to take out Dreadnoughts and Razorbacks in the first turn. For the first time in the night, all my reserves came in Turn 2. Sammael and the Black Knights came in on the left flank while the rest of the army rolled up the right flank. The concentration of firepower was pretty awesome and the Space Wolves were immediately on the back foot. Some highlights was the charge of the Black Knights into Grey Hunters - the Grey Hunters won! Sammael's plasma cannon overheated twice in a row when he was down to his last wound. That was scary! The Ravenwing won against the sons of Russ (next time we should just settle the issue with a champion from each side :)

Looking forward to the next round of mayhem!!!

Vendetta 04 Ready for Duty!

Vendetta 04 is now ready for action. In the pics above and below is 04 and 03, as well as Valkyrie 02 (which won't be part of throwdown - only the Vendettas are in).

This one didn't take me much time at all. In fact, if I had more time available for painting, it would have been done over a weekend. The secret is that unlike my first 2 Valkyrie/Vendetta, I did not paint the passenger compartment interior for this guy. And neither did I paint the heavy bolter gunners. The heavy bolters are painted and mounted on their swivel mounts, and unless you were to shine a light directly into the compartment, you can't really see the inside. It's all shadow :)

The other details are pretty much the same - pilot, WSO, cockpit details, weathering, etc.

Next up would be the Command Squad, and then the Ogryns, which I still need to procure. Or maybe I should just be cheeky and paint up Guardsman Marbo as my Elites choice :)

AirCAv: Quick Progress Update

Vendetta 04 and Valkyrie 01 are finally taking shape. Vendetta 04 was actually assembled a long time ago, but finally got the under and basecoats done.

Next up is to do the cockpit details, pilots, weapons details, weathering, decals, etc.

In the meantime, the remainig 30 Catachans are looking good. Don't have pics though. Hopefully next update.

Baptism of fire for Vendetta 03

It was a night of many firsts: 1st game with my IG in 6th Ed, 1st time using a Lord Commissar, 1st time using Priests since the ancient days of 3rd Ed - and the 1st time using my Vendetta since I finished it a year and a half ago. In fact, it's the first time I've used any of the IG assault flyers ever since the Codex came out a few years ago.

And it was a blast! Flying into battle on the enemy flanks is definitely a tactical multiplier, and while the Vendetta did not actually shoot down any of the 2 enemy Stormravens, it caused enough worry and damage to totally disrupt the enemy. The Vendetta came off pretty well, causing 2 hit points on each of the Stormravens, forcing one to hover (stunned) whence it was finished off by Leman Russ battle tanks. It also destroyed a Razorback and drew all kinds of fire, suffering 1 glancing hit (from a bolt pistol).

My first IG 6th Ed list itself was pretty fun to play. It's not as big as my 5th Ed infantry lists of 105-125 infantry, but it was hefty enough with 78 infantry and 5 vehicles. The biggest drawback of the list is that it had very few scoring units (only 4 after I combine the platoon infantry squads), and I must admit that I am not accustomed to so few for my IG. The list:

HQ:
Company Command - w standard bearer and vox caster
Lord Commissar - w power fist
2 Ministorum Priests - both w eviscerator, one also w shotgun

TROOPS:
1st Platoon:
Command - Lt. w close combat weapon & bolt pistol, vox caster, grenade launcher, meltagun
1st Squad - Sgt w power sword & laspistol, Commissar w power axe, vox caster, meltagun, krak grenades
2nd Squad - Sgt w close combat weapon & laspistol, meltagun, krak grenades
3rd Squad - Sgt w close combat weapon & laspistol, meltagun, krak grenades

2nd Platoon:
Command - Lt. w power sword & bolt pistol, vox caster, grenade launcher, meltagun
1st Squad - Sgt w power sword & bolt pistol, vox caster, meltagun, krak grenades
2nd Squad - Sgt w power sword & bolt pistol, meltagun, krak grenades
3rd Squad - Sgt w power sword & laspistol, meltagun, krak grenades

FAST ATTACK:
Vendetta

HEAVY SUPPORT:
Assault Tank Squadron
2 Leman Russ Demolishers - demolisher battle cannons and hull & sponson heavy bolters

Leman Russ Squadron
2 Leman Russ - battle cannons and hull & sponson heavy bolters

Next time I'm going to keep the regimental standard bearer at home and use the points for heavy bolters on the Vendetta and an extra grenade launcher or flamer for either 1st or 2nd platoon Command Squad.

The Emperor Protects!

Belated update from France. Better late than never.

You may have guessed it - I started a new job in September, and was literally swept away with work. Completely forgot to update my last campaign game in our France 1940 FOW campaign.

It was a brilliant battle against Mark's BEF. I was really cocky at the start of the battle and actually charged his lead platoon with my PzIIs. And I learnt the hard way how effective those little 2pdr guns can be. Needless to say my PzII platoon was torn to shreds, and the 2 surviving tanks bottled out.

After the initial setback, my troops dug in and waited for reinforcements. The pioneer platoon dug in to cover my right flank while the center and left flanks were covered by the Luftwaffe 88 battery and supported by the CO and the 2iC platoon. In the meantime, the 88s got invoved in long-range counter-battery fire against the Britsh artillery, with Stukas joining in the action as appropriate. The combined and consistent shooting eventually wore down the British batteries, and they were never a real threat in the battle.

The British reinforcements in the form of infantry and mortar platoons, supported by Matilda I's came in from my right flank. The dug-in pioneers were more than enough to discourage the advance of those tanks. Fortunately for me, the British infantry advanced cautiously, deciding to go from wood to wood.

Why this was fortunate for me was because it allowed precious time for my reinforcements to reposition from my far left flank and into battle on the right flank. One light platoon, one PzIII platoon, and the 2iC platoon combined to make a complete mess of the flanking British infantry. And to make sure the British didn't have any ideas about moving his 2pdrs to support those infantry, one of my light platoons hung around behind a hill on the left flank, within charging distance of the British lines should he decide to move his ATGs.

The combined tank platoons and Stuka strikes eventually decimated the British flank attack, and my tanks were now sweeping into assault positions behind a wood. Then it was time to for the final assault, and as one, the 3 tank platoons of the main assault on the right flank struck forwards, while the platoon lurking on the left flank charged the British positions in front of them, thus drawing the deadly 2pdr battery fire away from the main attack. The platoon carrying out the diversionary attack was decimated, losing 4 out of 5 tanks, and the survivors hastily fled the battlefield. But it was not in vain, for the main attack swept up the British right flank and garnered victory for the Germans.

Only one infantry platoon survived on the British side. I lost 2 tank platoons, and while the 88 battery was technically still there, I had lost both guns.

A superb end to an amazing campaign! Thanks Mark for such a brilliant game. Seeing 2 nicely painted armies on a nicely built table in a campaign game with a strong narrative is always too much fun!

And after that game, it was back to 40k! I had resumed work on the AirCav, with all remaining squads now primed, and 3rd squad currently being painted. Vendetta #3 is being assembled. Should be good. Also, the Dark Vengeance box is a great distraction, and combined with the Dark Angels models from another DV box, plus a whole bunch of marines I've had assembled for a long time now, I think I have most of 1st and 3rd Companies to go along with my Ravenwing. Then there's the Chaos codex, and I've got the Hellbrute all primed and ready to go ...

so much hobby, so little time ...