40K Battle Report: Necrons v. Dark Angel Space Marines (1000pts. Annihilation)

Granta 94 and I, rcar, got together for a 1000pt. annihilation game: my Dark Angels against Granta’s beautifully painted Necron army.

Granta’s 1000 point list consisted of 1 lord w/an orb of resurrection and a warscythe; two squads of Necron troopers; a squadron of Immortals; and five or six destroyers. A formidable list by someone who is, no doubt, a formidable strategist!

Here is my list reprinted in full:

HQ

• Belial, Master of the Deathwing
(terminator armor)

Troops

• Deathwing Terminator Squad (sergeant with chainfist; assault cannon)
(special, w/Belial in army, Terminator squads count as troops)

• 1 Combat Squad (5) w/Plasma Gun

• 1 Tactical Squad (10) w/Missle Launcher + RHINO


Fast Attack

• Ravenwing Attack Squadron
• Assault Combat Squad (jump infantry)


Deployment & Movement:

Granta deployed first and I took the first movement. I kept the Assault Marines as well as the Deathwing in reserve—special rules allow the latter to deepstrike at the top of round two. I deployed the bikes (Ravenwing) at the far right-hand side of the board with the intent of supporting the Deathwing after the deepstrike The bikes took a scout move and the combat squad w/the plasma gunner moved 6” The strategy here was to have the Deathwing in the thick of the action (with their 2+ saves they could withstand a whole hell of a lot of Gauss blasts) the Ravenwing supporting them and the regular SM combat squad taking up the rear. That way if the destroyers turbo boosted away, they might be in range of the Ravenwing and or the troopers.

The Rhino, which deployed on the far left of the board—to challenge a full squad of Necrons. did not charge up (my mistake).

Battle Highlights:




The photo above depicts the action btw. the Destroyers, Immortals, a squad of Necron troopers and the Deathwing. The Deathwing deepstruck right in front of an entire squad of Necron troopers and a squad of destroyers. They were also well within the range of the Immortals’ firing line (see below).




They stood firm, however loosing only one terminator. They attacked back decimating an entire squadron of Necron troopers (12 in all) thanks to the Assault cannon and their being within assault range of the squad.

By maneuvering out of the firing line of the terminators, Granta shifted the battle to the other side of the board which would prove a very smart move in later rounds of the game. The Deathwing, Belial, and the Ravenwing gave chase.



After this tactic the tide of the battle turned drastically. In subsequent rounds the Rhino continued its trek up along the left side of the board. With the cover of the hills (in this game hills blocked line of sight) and after a volley of shots from the Necron troopers which, eventually, scored a vehicle wrecked against it, the troopers disembarked and ran up the hill to establish a firm firing point. The Deathwing and Ravenwing got tied up in taking terrain tests. Granta’s forces moved to confront the Tactical squadron that disembarked from the now wrecked Rhino. They managed to take out the combat squad and assault squad.




The assault squad deep struck in the third round but did little to change the course of the game. Both the combat squad and the assault squad were whittled down to one marine and rendered ineffective. Granta’s Necron troopers and Immortals as well as his incredibly quick and tactically clever Destroyers managed to win the game for him. What began as a propaganda piece for the Deathwing and Ravenwing ended in a undisputed win for the Necrons.

WFB Fight in Ranks Question

Anticipating the release next year of the revised Beasts of Chaos book (being written by Any Hoare, who wrote Cities of Death, Planetfall, Lizarmen, Tau Empire, etc.), I'm diggining out a Beast Herd or two.

I could use some help interpreting how Ungors and Gors fight together. Can Ungor fight if the unit size and model placement puts the Ungors in the unit in a "subsequent" rank, say the third?

The rule for fighting in ranks WFB (55) isn't much help, really. Spears fight in 2 ranks in defence (right), but the second paragraph of the rule says "or subsequent ranks."

Next, if Ungors settle in the rear ranks, but are the first models removed in close combat, then what possible use are they? Bubblewrap . . . can you hear me Beastboy?

This seems broken from the start, but I'm probably missing something. No doubt the unit and its ambiguous nature will change in the revivion.

I appreciate any input the group may have to share.

Another Terminator Face Down

Same method but note the lenses.

Deathwing Terminator Faces, WIP

Since I don't believe that I'm up the the challenge of all bone white armor, I've painted my Deathwing Terminators with white faces. Here's a WIP:



In this photo, above, I've painted the face with pretty heavily watered down bleached bone. I'm careful not to get it into the eyes or on the respirator thingie which looks a bit like a dog's snout.



After it dries I shade it using 25% flesh wash/75% water. I'll paint a stripe out on the workbench. It should look like watered down iced tea. I shade beneath the jut of the eye socket and am careful to get the bits in where there are distinctive lines or separations in the parts of the face



A bit of white highlights to cover up the mess and blue eyes. Still a bit to go. Will post pics of the finished terminators.

Space Hulk | Space Hulk | Gaming | Games Workshop

Space Hulk | Space Hulk | Gaming | Games Workshop

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A little Warhammer in Long Beach

Hey everyone,

No pictures for this post, unfortunately, as we still have not found the wires to the digital camera, but I wanted to make a post anyway to say hello and to keep the discussion going, as it seems to have slowed down a bit. Since coming to Long Beach, I have had a number of conversations with folks, both in person and online, trying to sort out the wargaming scene and find some groups to play with. At this point all looks to be going well: Some really nice local hobbyists who do a monthly gaming event with a mi of games, and some nice and smart WFB folks at the local Battle Bunker. I have also just recently gotten hooked up with some Warhammer Ancients folks who also seem very nice and a guy a bit to the north who organizes Field of Glory events. I have finished rebasing some of my 15s to go with FoG, and will play with them at their next event, but at the moment I am most excited about the WAB game, which will meet this coming Sunday. They seem to have large games (on a 6'x16' table!!), and so I am excited to be part of it.

My first game here was Mordheim with a very nice guy from the St. Crispin's Irregulars (the group with the monthly mixed event. It was well-played and a lot of fun, and boiled down to my Marienberger's trying to drag the treasure chest off the table while his vampirtes and Ghouls chased me down -- both of us trying to make route tests every round! Eventually I failed the route and he won (and got oodles of cash), but none of our fellers died, and so we are ready for another game when tie permits.

The second game was with another very nice guy and his club of 7-8 players (it seems). This game was part of a new move in Warhammer Fantasy to have epic-scaled games, and this one was truly epic. The biggest game I had played in before this was me, Bubblewrap, Granta, Southpaw, and those four guys from the Sciences at A&M - each of us with 2K. This game was like that -- a big-assed table with eight players, but in this one we each had 5k! So the total points on the table was 40K! As expected from a game of this size and the first like this, we only made it to the second round, but it was fun nevertheless, and round two allowed my Vampires to fly screaming from the advancing ranks of undead, shrieking as they tore into the Empire Handgunners who opposed them (Granta will attest to the beardiness of the new Vampire characters).

On my side were two Daemon armies advancing on the center while the Skaven had our right flank and I took the left. Opposed were Empire across from me mostly, Ogres and more Empire in their center, and Dwarves on their flank. Even in just the two turns we had some interesting things happened (or threatened to). For example, the Vampire spell "Winds of Undeath" makes every enemy unit on the table test, and on a 4+ it suffers one wound. Then you take those wounds and create a new Spirit Host with them. In a 2k game when the enemy had maybe 10 units on the table this is a powerful spell, but with 50 units on the table it became very important for the other side to prevent me from catsing that spell! In a similar way, the Skaven Bell required every enemy unit to make a Panic test in the first round, and that was a lot of units testing! My opponent had great setup with the Imperial Standard and his general shoring up all Psych tests, but the effect of the "all enemy units..." wording was really impressive.

OK, that's it for now - I will try to get some pics pf the game this Sunday, and I hope you guys get some gaming in as well!

IMS

historical portraits and minis: Lenin

It seems to me that some of my favorite studios (e.g. Copplestone castings) base their figs on less-well known photos or statues of historical figures; the implication being that what better way to make a miniature historical than replicating a detailed portrait in the interests of getting the style right. So, I was browsing the "back of beyond" catalog for a fig that had a particular look and I came across this in the pack of "European advisers" and I was particularly interested in the mini second in from the right as I recalled the following portrait from the Wolf biography of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin:



Pretty darn close, no?

Daemonhunters are awesome and they suck

Hey everyone,

Soon I am California bound, but I got in a couple of 40K games with a guy here in town (military from the base) using Grey Knights/Daemon Hunters last week, and so despite the lack of photos I wanted to post a little Battle Report of the two games I played. The guy I was playing against was a big tournament player, and so has been very good about introducing me to some tournament strategies versus those he might use for a fun game.

Game One: His Imperial guard were mostly what he had assembled thus far, as he is making a new army. He wanted to introduce me to some of the points of the game, and so took an all-infantry force with more variety than single purpose. Our game was seizing objectives, and I took Greay Knights with on Inquisitor and a few Stormtroopers. The game was also 40K in 40 minutes, so we played 500 points without any big characters or 2+ saves.

I deployed on the side with a few more objectives, and the game for me was refusing the right flank after sacrificing the Stormtroopers on that side, while sweeping the left with Grey Knights and the other unit of Stormtroopers. In all I swept that flank somewhat effectively and at game end I held more objectives, so my plan worked. My Grey Knights also turned out to be pretty damn hard, and the assaulting Stormbolters combined with close combat abilities made it hard for the Imperial guard to mount defense. I felt really good about the game at the end, and was happy that my general tactic seemed to work well with my army. However:

Game Two: For this game my opponent told me that he was going to turn up the competition a bit, indicating that he had taken some smart choices, but hadn't gone all out. His force ended up being three troop transports, a skimmer, and a Leman Russ. This didn't freak me out too much, as I had Termintators deep striking in (this game was 1K) with a honcho, and so I thought "all I need to do is get to him with a few fellers." Oy. He started dropping fire on me from the first turn and my forces just evaporated. Five shots per round with the Leman Russ = 5x the small Template worth of S8 AP2, and then the transports and the Skimmer (twin-linked Lascannons) added insult to injury, and then added more injury. There was some dice favor towards him, but the game can be summed up as follows: My guys suck all kinds of ass.

The result of the two (in retrspect), is that against infantry armies my guys do OK, but against all-mechanized forces I am pretty much screwed. I will take another shot at it tomorrow and try to load up on Meltaguns to the extent that I can, but this is a very small extent (Grey Knights have choices mostly limited to Heavy Flamers, Psycannons, and Stormbolters). In the game tomorrow I think he is going to leave the Leman Russ behind as well, as kicking someone's ass so completely wasn't really fun for him either.

bloodbowl humans

Hi all! Here is my latest project, all finished! These are the humans from the base set that comes in the bloodbowl box. For plastics, quality is ok. I went with the blue pants theme because I wanted them to have a striking difference from the (green) orcs I published in an earlier blog (so, it's green vs. blue instead of black vs. white) ;)

For Southpaw

I saw this (buried deep in an otherwise-mediocre thread) on Dakka, and thought that Chris might appreciate it after his initial Space Marine modeling efforts.

How to Build a Huey Helicopter

Terrain: Oil Drums

Hey Gang:

Sorry for the long delay. It was good to see rcar, Granta, and MS last week and get some 40K gaming in.

A couple of months ago, my kids came home with little plastic things full of gum from a kid's b-day party goodie bag. See Here:
Like me, you no doubt noticed that it is shaped awfully like a 50-gallon oil drum. So, with a little selective cutting (to get rid of the handle) and some paint, they look like this:
The Ork -- by the way -- is done by my friend, NB. This is his first experience painting figs and as you can see he is already quite proficient. He is about ready to try some more detail work -- washes, etc. But, back the drums, I think they turned out OK. I like the one on the left more than the one on the right -- more bleed through of previous colors. I was going for rusty barrel look -- you can let me know how I did.

The barrels are a tad out of scale but only a tad -- no more so than the vehicles (though in the opposite direction).

I have yet to locate the source of these plastic gum-filled terrain possibilities but another appeared in my home (again, in a goodie bag). I am trying to track down the source and when I do I will be happy to share that info or even send along a couple to you (if it turns out to be an IL thing).

Cheers,
SP

Quick battle report: Crimsom Fists vs. Necrons 650-ish; Pitched Battle

Granta 94 played a necron army, 2 squads of 12 and a lord that was very heavily kitted out: resurrection orb & some other stuff but the former featured rather well for Granta throughout the game.

I had everything in 5 man combat squads: 1 tactical (w/rhino) 1 assault and 1 scout. The tactical squad had a missile launcher and the scout squad had a heavy bolter. My chapter master had a power weapon, master crafted bolter and all the juice you get with a chapter master.

I won deployment and initiative and went first. I chose to deep strike my assault squad so they stayed in reserve for the first round of combat. I moved the rhino around the archaic-style terrain piece toward one of Granta's squads and his lord. The scout squad used the infiltrate rule and hid in the woods 12 inches away from the other squad.

Not much happened in that first round. The second round was the most eventful for me: my assault troopers deep struck right behind one of Granta's squad. Though intended to appear behind the lord they actually shifted four inches to the left and wound up behind a squad. My gamble worked as the location for their appearance was rather close to the table edge. (See 1st two photos.)

I took out 6 (half the squad) but the res orb that the necron lord was toting about allowed two to survive the assault reducing the total dead in the squad to four. The squad was subsequently wiped out by the necrons who w/their str 5 gauss rifles just ripped through the assault marines. I went cold on the saves and this represented, for me, the beginning of the end.

This would be the full extent of the damage I would inflict against the necrons. The rest of the game saw my squads cut down entirely with the exception of a fleeing heavy bolter in the scout squad and my chapter master who failed horribly on the orbital bombardment (which went 8" wide from the intended target). After round two the dice went entirely cold.

Highlights: my epistolary librarian standing his ground against a half-squad and Granta's lord. However, Granta's lord literally vaporized the librarian; my snake eyes did not save against the two wounds and poof, gone.

rcar workbench: Cpt. Aguilar

Still need to add bits of detail to the sword and other places but this is, more or less, the finished product.

rcar workbench: crimsom fists

I'm on a bit of a tare with the space marines. I've set up a 500+ point beginning force of crimsom fists space marines. chapter master, two combat squads, a rhino, and a librarian. lean and mean.

I got the rhino and the black reach box set captain for a song on ebay and this formed the basis for the new army. Pictured here is the captain w/detail picked out on gun and face & the first drybrush.

I love blue over black: the highlights really pop & I feel the same way with layering reds. As such, this just really seemed to be the army for me. Also, you learn quite a bit working on an army for the first time, sadly from mistakes, and turning around and putting that learning to use immediately is pretty good when you are painting.

Doing some terrain a "fire base" and a ruined bldg. will post those soon.

workbench sneak peak [take 2]

Ok, here we go again... I am reposting since the previous post is illegible. The photo shows the current project I am working on. Can anyone guess what it's from?

workbench sneak peak

Finished Bloodbowl Orks, next up ... humans!

Ok, guys,

Here are the finished bloodbowl orks. I will post photos of a game against wood elves soon. For now, enjoy the greenskins! Next up on the painting table are the hummies!

Belial: Master of the Deathwing, and my free time.

Hi folks,

I started building the terminators for my dark angels army: the deathwing. The dark angels' codex allows you to take terminator squads as regular troop types if you have Belial as a HQ choice. Also, if you spend an extra 25 or so points, and include the deathwing chapter standard, the terminators each get an additional attack. However, GW does not manufacture a Belial mini. So, I began to convert on of the terminator suits to reflect a Belial character. These, above images, are the beginning. Just laid down some of the paint and a bit of the detail. I still need to do highlights and text on the armor. Also, most of the back of the model is unpainted. I also intend to include a standard.

Bloodbowl orks workbench

Hey guys!

I thought I'd post these photos of the current project I'm working on. These are for a friend and when I finish them we'll be able to have a few games with our teams. I am not doing anything spectacularly original here, and I've been able to bring these guys to this stage in approximately 6 hours, considering the fact that I've been out of practice for about six months. Obviously they need some more work, but they are pretty close to being finished (photos are overexposed -- sorry!).

from rcar's workbench

I have over 1100 points of Dark Angels SMs assembled on the table with a Ravenwing attack squadron waiting in the wings to be primed. This should bring me up to about 1250.

Above are some shots of a veteran (photos 1, 3 & 4) and tactical squadron. The marine with angels' symbol on the MK7 helmet (second photo) is from a regular tactical squad. He, like all the others in the squad, is converted so that the bolter is kept from in front of his chest. This was simple: by cutting directly above the elbow guard and below the shoulder guard the arm can be turned out. The other arm, which is used to grip the gun below the barrel, is turned back. It's a good-looking conversion, simple, and it allows you to prime the figure all at once and paint it w/all the details exposed.

The other vets have legs from a terminator sprue and the rest are leftover pieces. Taking my cue from the Ultramarine vanguard veterans, but also wanting to make the squad stand out as vets (through poses and stature) I painted a laurel on the helmets to signify, in part, that they are veterans. I still have alot of work to do but the progress has been OK thus far.

Wesleyan anyone?

Hey guys! I know I haven't posted anything for a while (I will, I promise), but I need your help on something. A student of mine is considering going to Wesleyan university in CT. Does any of you know anything about the university? I would appreciate in insider info. from anyone you know.

Anyway, Easter break's upon us here and so I wish you all happy (belated) Easter!

I beat "LittleChessPartner" because I am a pimp.

Hey everyone,

I have some AT-43 pics I will post this weekend, but I don't figure there is a rush, as they can't look all that different from the last games.  Nevertheless, I have some converted Copplestones that I will post.  In the meantime, I have been trying to beat the LittleChessPartner from Chess.com since Less turned me onto the site.  Now mind you, I suck pretty bad, and the computer, you will notice, is set to "Easy."  Nevertheless, it has been beating me in humiliating ways, and tonight for the first time daddy spanked the computer.  Uh.

You will notice thatI am behind on points as well - so I had to sacrifice pieces in order to get into a good position.  This is the mark of a true master.

granta94: workbench

Here are a few photos of things I've been working on:

The Eldar were a challenge after countless Necrons, but I was going to have to learn to paint them someday; so after many false starts and color scheme trials, I settled on this scheme from the codex. Nearly complete: a squad of ten including weapons platform and a Warlock. I'll post the family photo when the work is complete. They took much too long and the lines on the helmets and the eyes aren't crisp enough. But I like 'em.

My Orc and Goblin WArband is finally finished, sans Squigs. I actually designed with a stratagy in mind. But now that the Rackham Craze is sweeping the nation, I'm uncertain when we'll go zombie hunting. I'm not discussing or fully revealing the warband composition on this unsecure blog til after the actual match. The big Orc is slightly bashed: the bone headress and the goblin arrows protruding from his neck and the trophy dangling from the big fuckin spikey mace make him absurd and menacing in equal measure: he's the current (and currently anonymous) warboss.

Misc.

If you had told me in January that I would only get in 2 measly games in the first quarter of the year, I wouldn't havebelieved you. The sad fact is that there is more regular gaming going on where the stars at night are big and bright. Another weekend, another opportunity to seize.

Lament aside, go check the first pics of the new Copplestone Miniatures range: 1660-1688-The Wars of the Sun King. Just f'ng brilliant.

Hey, Ilan. No doubt the range will be accompanied by yet another Chris Peers rule set!

Has anybody read or played the Field of Glory system yet?

M'heim goblins finished, warband bulking up. Squigs next. Step-off, Rob!

New figs of my own

So for my birthday Denise got me a copy of Chessmaster XI -- The Art of Learning as I've been trying to get back into chess for a couple of months now. The new version has a bunch of great tutorials by Josh Watkins -- the Searching for Bobby Fisher kid (now man). I'm enjoying it a lot and am looking to play the occasional over the board chess game in the neighborhood.

At the same time, last week, I went up to Cleveland to move the last of the furniture out of my parents' garage. While there, I held a quick garage sale to get rid of some of the nicer pieces on Craigslist and put the money toward a nice, basic set of wooden pieces.

Today my order from The House of Staunton arrived. I order the Championship Chessmen (their entry-level set) in Boxwood and Ebonized Boxwood. Unboxing follows:


The box was reassuringly heavy for its size. The custom HoS wet tape was a nice touch.

Lots of Peanuts

Beneath all the peanuts . . . a smaller box!

The King is 3.75" high. The set as a whole weights 45 oz -- nice and heavy. Big difference in heft between these and my old plastic set. The general style of the set is the "European Pattern" version of the Staunton Chessmen. The knights are a little funky looking, but I like them. Since entry-level sets aren't going to give you highly detailed knights, they opted for a more minimalist approach.

The pieces set-up on my green and white roll-up board. I might end up getting a new, el-cheepo vinyl board as the mouse-pad texture of this board is almost a little too grippy. I'm saving up for a nice wooden folding board as well.


The pieces in action. Again, the heft is just so nice.

While in Cleveland I also picked up a beat-to-heck platic set of Mandarin chess men. I threw the pieces in with my old plastic set and Will and I play "caputre" -- we set my old set and then put the mandarin pieces in the center of the board three at at time and Will captures them (followed by consoling them that "everybody gets caputred sometime"). The pawns from this old set hang out with his various fisher price construction workers.

BTW: If anyone is up for some correspondence chess on chess.com, let me know.