Kill Team! Throwdown! New Tau! What an awesome Hobby Nite!

What an awesome Hobby Nite! So many things going on. I arrived early enough to witness our very own venerable Khairul completely demolish his opponent in a no-holds-barred epic game of ping-pong. Then it was reebs and good hobby talk. Then Faizal came with his new Tau models.

I must say the new Tau models are a vast improvement! What kept me away was the battlesuits - personally not to my taste. But the new Broadsides are really really nice models. And not to mention the ginormous Riptides - of which he brought 2. Since the Kill Team game was delayed (courtesy of a classic KL jam), we set about to having a good ol' 1750 40k game.

And he completely demolished Eldrad's Defenders of Haran! From the receiving end point of view, the Tau shooty just got shootier. But their Achilles Heel remains close combat. When out of desperation I unleashed my left flank (sounds big - 1 squad of Harlies, 1 squad of Warp Spiders) on him, 2 Kroot and 1 Fire Warrior squads were routed in a single charge, and a Riptide was held in combat. Should have done that from the start - and yes, Rangers WILL charge Tau. lol. Next time, you upstarts you.

Kill Team was an amazing experience. Note that these are home-brewed Kill Team rules and scenarios (and superb terrain!), not the GW rules that came out years ago. But it was totally awesome! You really get the feel of your individual warriors as they face down the enemy in a desperate fight to the death. Awesome terrain is absolutely essential as you get down to your models' point of view and eyeball the enemy trying to creep up to their objectives. Completely full of character! I'm so glad I named each individual team member of my Kill Team. It does bring across the feel of that amazing skirmish game - Necromunda. Only it's based on 6th ed 40k mechanics, and it's far simpler. Can't wait for the campaign.

And it was also Throwdown #7, which is the first night of 2 Wild Card entries. I still have loads of Catachan veterans to paint, so I entered my 3rd Squad. And amazingly, they came in 2nd! I was surprised - just finished that squad an hour before Hobby Nite. Thanks for the votes guys. But the highlight of the Throwdown was most definitely Jeff's really nicely painted Mk.II Land Raider. Very carefully done - quite inspiring for me to do my own one for the Thousand Sons.

Anyways, that was totally awesome. I love Hobby Nite!!!

Eldrad Lives!!!

Last Friday was another awesome night of mad hobby and dice chucking. I was a little late, but made it in time to display my Throwdown entry, and have a game vs the smelly minion of the Great Enemy - Papa Faizal Nurgle himself.

Unlike the last time that Eldrad's motley band of maiden world defenders met up with the Plague Marines, Nurgle was this time more careful to not split his army into bite-sized chunks.

And the result was dramatic! For minimal losses, the disciples of the Rotten One nearly wiped out my army - leaving only a Pathfinder and Eldrad alive. While technically the Eldar still won, it didn't feel like it ... lol

Faizal also won the Fast Attack Throwdown with his really nice looking bloated pus filled entry. I really like the detail in the exhaust, with bits of zombies falling out of the flyer's arse. As you can see above, Eldrad was bravely facing down the very same prize-winning flying monstrosity.

My own flyer was also at the Throwdown, and I believe it's the last Vendetta that I actually bothered to paint the insides of (got smarter after that).

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.