Imperial fists 3rd company.

The beginning of the Imperial Fists Third Company. I decided for this project I would paint my marines unassembled. I have always been frustrated at not being able to get behind the bolter when it's being held with two hands. Also I will paint the bases separately this time. I really feel like this will alleviate the annoyance I feel when I start getting down to the details. The basing will be kept simple with a three colour dry brush on small gravel. The model itself I will paint exactly as shown by GW in "How to Paint:Space Marines."  I had worked out a a scheme separately before referring to the book but I thought their version was solid and in the future I'll know exactly how to replicate the scheme should I take a break. It's been two years since I painted my Imperial Guard and I have no clue how I did it.  Not to mention it was a mishmash of old GW  and Vellejo paints. 

The list is another matter entirely. I have no idea.  I'm starting with the tac squad because I know they'll be on the table no matter what. Lysander is really calling to me but so is a kit bashed Garadon. Having a tac squad as an HQ choice is pretty unique. I just can't see the value in it. Having an embedded Captain with no inv save doesn't inspire me. His look out sir is just as good for shooting, but in combat he'll be challenged out against anything better than a regular sergeant. Plus his relic weapon is pretty useless. A master crafted bolt pistol that ignores cover. Cool but useless. 

It's not a huge start to speak of, but I've set aside time to work on the project and So far I'm enjoying the process. I hope that finishing the models in parts will keep me motivated as each appendage that I finish is one step closer to a cool looking mini. Sometimes when I'm painting a fully assembled model I look back when I'm finished and notice parts that I overlooked or missed, broken down as this one is I can keep better track of each piece and create a better finished product. 

Skaven Abomination complete

I'm going to call this dish cooked. I was determined to finish this model today. I have been stopping and starting so much since moving it was hard to know where I left off each time, it seems like every time I rotated the model in my hand I found a new spot I forgot to paint. Is it the greatest thing I ever painted? Not a chance. But it doesn't suck and any opponent will  see I put some time into it and the paint scheme clearly represents a crawling, grinding mound of flesh, fists, and teeth. Good enough. 

2000 point Skaven

Grey Seer 
+ Dispel Scroll 
+ Dragonbane Gem
+ Screaming Bell 


Chieftain 
+ additional hand weapon 
+ shield 
+ Battle Standard 

Warlock Engineer 
+ Level 1 Wizard; Skaven Spells of Ruin 
+ Warpmusket 

Assassin 
+ Potion Of Strength 
+ Weeping Blade 


35 Skavenslaves 
+ Musician

34 Skavenslaves 
+ Musician 

34 Clanrats 
+ Clawleader 
+ Musician 
+ Standard Bearer 

• Weapon Team 
+ Poisoned Wind Mortar 

34 Stormvermin 
+ Fangleader 

+ Musician 
+ Standard Bearer 
  + Storm Banner 

• Weapon Team 
+ Doom Flayer 


Hell Pit Abomination

Doomwheel

Warp Lightning Cannon


2,000 points

W

Last game at 1500 I learned how much damage all my "toys" can do without any of my troops actually seeing combat. Doom rocket, Scorch, Doomwheel, abomb.  Enough of my erratic war machines and magic gimmicks did their job to put me in a great position to win. A few models let me down. The Warp Lightning cannon let me down all game, and my poisoned wind mortar exploded the first time it fired. With another game under my belt I'm going to explore some of the other options the rats have. The A

ssassin is the first character I'd like to experiment with. Potion of strength and the weeping blade for D3 wounds.  His presence on the field should deter monstrous creatures from rushing forward to quickly. I8 and always strikes first with 4 attacks at strength 7. He should give any character or monster a nasty surprise any turn they charge.  I had to give up an engineer but it's in the name of experimentation so I'm cool with it. The other unit I'm going to try is the doom flayer.  Really like the model and the stats seem decent. Gonna give it a try. The Screaming Bell and Storm Vermin are a unit that I can only bring out at 2000 points and although the effects of the bells tolls are random the unit as a whole is very dependable. Unbreakable and decent in combat.  The only question is whether Storm Vermin are worth it or if I should use a larger block of clan rats to push it. 

Back into fantasy..for the first time.

Played my first game of fantasy Monday night, well not exactly my first game, I have played before but it's been so long I could barely remember any of the rules. I liked it.  We never finished the game and even if we had I would have lost but the important thing is I had fun. I've been in such a funk lately playing and building lists for 40k. 

Some lessons I learned for my next game. I need more slaves.  In bigger blocks. With no shields. Second. Save the abomination.  I have three rare choices that carry the assault load in my army and losing one of them early really hurts. Gotta keep it safe.  

Skaven Doomwheel

My Doomwheel is coming along nicely. I was always attracted to Skaven because of models like this one. It's steampunk. And the Skaven, as a unique race to warhammer, benfit greatly from that type of esthetic.  So of course it was an auto include when I first started building the army. Problem was, I had no idea how to use it. I didn't know what it's role was in the army. I just knew it had three cannons and random attacks and random movement distance. 

Set-up is very important for this model as it does not have an all comers profile, it's strengths lie in taking out specific targets, and therefore must be used as a defensive counter to the enemies more elite units . The wheel has two possible targets it favours. Monstrous creatures and small blocks of T3 infantry. The multiple wounds from its 3 warplightning shots are tailor made for monsters. If that type of model isn't present then small blocks of infantry are also a nice target. It has a small front profile to reduce incoming hits and can do 6-7 wounds against low toughness models with its random attacks and impact hits. Keeping the model back during deployment and countering one of these two troop types is important for the models success.  Skaven generally have more units to place then most armies so it usually isn't a problem placing it last, and the flank becomes a natural choice for deployment because you can generally find one its two favorite targets there. It's also easier to manage it's distance from the rest of the Skaven army, or the enemies forces, when placed on the flank. Position is critical because it fires at the clost target friend or foe, so compensating for it's random movement becomes easier when I can keep it arms length from my own models. 

You have to keep expectations low when you push this unit forward, it's Skaven, and Skaven can be unreliable, but if you play the percentages and give it targets it can have success against then your playing it the right way.

Returning to Skaven.

After the my last game of 40k and my inability to compete with other current 40k lists I decided to return to the land of Fantasy. Most of my games (all 4 of them) have been reletively competitive.  More than that, I feel the game is more competitive. I'm sure after facing off against some store armies I'll change my tune but for the time being I'm content to put the finishing touches on my Skaven list. 

The list itself is centered around the Screaming Bell pushed by 34 Storm Vermin. I put a lot of work into all of my bases and trays but the bell unit took the most effort as many of the models had to be converted to fit under the rear of the bell and along the left side where the halberds are naturally trying to stab the bell to death. An earthing rod is a must take and maybe a potion to restore wounds. Beyond that I'm sorta lost as too how to complete the army. I have 2 units of 35 slaves and a unit of clan rats 35 strong as we'll.  All have shields. I had hoped that equipping shields would allow for a lower model count but after a few games it's clear that shooting and magic damage is costly to my t3 troops and shields are useless against it. The Abomination is in. It's a winner and it was clear to me the very first time I played with it. I also have the obligatory Doom Wheel and Warp Lightning Cannon. Both are solid and do well for me every time they hit the table.  

My absolute favourite unit that I have used is the engineer with doom rocket. For some reason it's worked for me every time I've used it. Save 2 dice, teleport the warlock, then roll 5 dice.  When you start to roll 5 or 6 dice you tend to get a really average result.  A reliable result. Strength 5 large blast really hurts in fantasy. It's a one hit wonder that gets results. 

Currently I'm basing my doom wheel and finishing painting my abomination. More to come. 

Ravenwing battle report

Played a game Thursday night against a local player. Seems like most of the gents who hang out at GW on Thursday nights like to bring the cheese, this guy was no different. He played a flying chaos monstrous creature list.  Two level 3 daemon princes and a lvl 3 lord of change with some plague bearers and a herald to take objectives. I brought my standard 1250 lost with a few changes. 2 Ravenwing assault squads with 2 plasmas each and one attack bike with a multi melta, 6 black nights with a grenade launcher and a librarian lvl one with an auspex. 5 scouts to play in the backfield. Sammael of course...because I have to. I dislike Sammael, but, what can you do. Bolter banner instead of fnp.  The game was 5 objectives and heavies were scoring. Regular deployment. 

I am a terrible player, I know this, when I play games I can't help but run straight up the gut and engage as soon as possible, this game, that strategy was exactly the wrong thing to do. He set up on the ground, bearers taking his back two objectives and the mc's sitting behind some cover. I immediately moved up and shot everything I had, doing basically nothing. I lost the game right there. What I should have done was sit back at 24.  Deny him any cc till turn 3. Shoot bolters and just wait. Three other mistakes: I took deny cover as my power for my Libby which was basically useless because he has a 5++ as it is, plus I didn't get my knights close enough to double tap or use my grenade launcher, and I took first turn playing an objective mission when the other army had limited shooting, basically no shooting at all.  Don't even know what I was thinking. 

The moral of this story: I was ready to turf this army right then and there but once again after the dust had settled, I knew I had played it all wrong. It's one more game under my belt though and next time I play something like that I will try and remember the lessons I learned from this loss. 

The changes I made to this list were mostly positive. Losing the attack bike made no difference, the 5 scouts were just as useless, but I still feel like they are a better purchase for the camping objective role.  The bolter banner really let me down. It keeps my army way to tight, 6 inches is a tight circle to try and stay in. I'll keep it for now, but not having the fnp net really makes the army feel exposed. Did I miss the dark shroud? A little, but the librarian is still the better choice I think, most of his armies strengths like cc and vector strike don't care about cover.  I should have taken prescience as my psychic power, I won't make that mistake next time. I will also model a force axe. I need the strength. 

Lastly, I need to get better at writing blog posts. This one was all over the map.