A Different Sort Of Project

So I've started working on a different sort of side project.  I thought it'd be nice to have a sort of display diorama scenery piece to use when taking pictures of models for the blog.  My idea was to use a box to frame it out sort of and then using terrain and other bits to set up a small hall within the fortress monastery of the Lions of Harlech.  I still need to come up with some lighting bits and I want to do some sort of banners hanging on the back wall, trophies, that sort of thing.  I also am thinking about some sort of table for the middle of the room to place relics.  Any ideas or bit suggestions are welcome.

 

 

 

Also, finally got a few of these Dark Angel watchers at a low price on eBay to start working on as serfs within the Chapter.  I've got a few other pieces in the planning stage as well.  It's been fun taking a slight break from marines to work on ideas for the support part of the chapter.

That's about it for now though I'm going to try and finish assembling the scions I got this week as well as continuing work on the display box project.  I've also been sorting things aside to bring up to Johnson City since we're all talking about a bits sell/trade night on the 10th that I'm looking forward to.  I'll see you all next time and remember the Emperor protects.

Naval Regiment

So yesterday in the mail came my latest purchases via eBay.  Two Destroyer Tank Hunters are now here to supplement my slowly growing Cymric Sub-Sector Battle Fleet 4th Naval Infantry Regiment.  I'm going with a 4 Battalion formation with this regiment.  1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion will be Infantry Battalions.  3rd Battalion will be an Armored Battalion.  4th Battalion will be Artillery and other support units.

 

The Infantry Battalions will primarily be veteran squads (armsmen) and regular squads (ratings and such organized into units) with scions (SBS type squads) to give them a bit more punch.  For the Armor Battalion, I want to add a few more basic tanks of course and then some Hellhound type options.  For the 4th Battalion, I'm thinking some artillery vehicles of course (basilisk, manticore, etc) and then anti-air with at least a couple hydras.  Then to round the battalion out, any flyers such as Vendettas and Valkyries.

I don't have any plans to use Ogryns or Ratlings due to it being a naval force and mutations like that would be seen by the higher ups that the force had been tainted in warp jumps.  Any other suggestions on what to maybe add or consider would be appreciated.

And then last of all in the same eBay order, my Lions got a new vehicle as well.  An all up lascannon Predator has been commissioned into service.

So that's it for now and I'll try to have something new up before long.  Enjoy all.

It's A Small Wagh After All

So this past Saturday evening, I ventured up to JC and their local FLGS for a night of 40K.  I was facing off against Cheef's Orks and it seemed we both planned on bringing the armor 14.  I did it a touch better though with 3 land raiders to his 2 battle wagons.

Lions of Harlech
Captain w/ Artificer, Storm Shield, Power Weapon
Command Squad w/ Champion (Power Sword), Apothecary, and 3 Vets with Power Swords
2 Landraiders
1 Landraider Crusader
2 Tactical Squads with Flamer and Heavy Bolter
1 Nine Man Scout Squad w/ Cloaks and Sniper Rifles

Ork List
War Boss w/ Power Claw attached to a 30 boy squad
Battle Wagon full of Tank Bustas
Battle Wagon full of Warboss w/ Nobs, mix of Huge Choppas and Choppas, Boss Pole and Pain Boy
Grot Lobba
Grot Cannon
Aegis Line with Gun
Small Commando Unit w/ Power Claw

Game ended up being Big Guns Never Tire with 5 objectives and short table edge deployment.

Lions Deployment

I missed getting a pic of his deployment somehow but he put his Grot stuff behind the aegis on the hill at the back of his deployment, his battlewagons beside each other on his right flank, and large boy squad in the middle.

My first turn was uneventful with landraiders moving up and only a few boys dying in the middle squad.  His turn saw the tankbusters get a glance on a landraider and his lobba killed a pair of scouts.

Turn two is where I began to thin out the big squad majorly.  The landraider and crusader moved up and the tactical squad deployed.  Between flamer, hurricane bolters, bolters, heavy bolter, assault cannon ... The squad went WAY down in size.  I also put a wound on the grot cannon.

He then moved the boys toward my squad, Matilda moved up with the tankbustas and the other battlewagon went sideways toward the middle of the board unloading the nobs onto an objective.  He killed another scout with the lobba which was pinned on a double box car roll.  All his shooting into the tactical squad killed 1 marine.  Overwatch killed 3 orks and then he failed the charge by rolling a combined 3 inches.

Turn three I started by unloading the command squad out the crusader and the tactical squad shimmied over a bit to get a better angle for the flamer.  Landraiders all moved for better angles and to avoid being autohit targets if charged.  Shooting took the boy squad down to just the warboss, first blood finally scored.  I also put a wound on the Aegis gun.  The landraider on the far side put a hull point on Matilda and took out the zap gun.  The command squad and captain charged the nobs.  I managed only 2 wounds to his 3 inflicted back but passed leadership.  This was the beginning of a VERY long combat.

His commandos showed up and came in near Matilda which managed a third glance on my landraider on that side.  He pinned my scouts again by killing two with his lobba and an 11 rolled on my part.  His empty battlewagon tankshocked my tactical squad and I moved safely out of the way.  His lone warboss charged the Crusader and destroyed it.  The Wagh was declared this turn and the reroll was needed for that warbosses charge.  Since the one model was the only one that got to use the Wagh, I still maintain that this was a very small Wagh.  The combat between command squad was a grind with a wound on each side.  I was down to my captain and the apothecary.  He killed another scout this turn as well.

I then forgot to take some pictures for a while but how it went down was like this.  My turn 4 I rammed his Matilda with my Landraider for no damage and then took a hull point off it with lascannons. Empty landraider finished off the aegis gun.  My tactical squad charged his empty battlewagon with krak grenades and managed two glances after missing with 6 out of 8 attacks.  The central combat continued onwards with my captain taking a wound and 1 nob dying but he stayed in the combat with the boss pole reroll which finished a second wounded nob off.

His turn saw his warboss assault my empty landraider but only get a single glancing hit on it which his commado boss charged the full landraider with a wiffage.  The combat in the middle saw no wounds on either side and on it went.

My turn five I backed up my full landraider onto an objective and shooting from it killed two commandos.  My empty landraider tank moved up and killed the grot cannon while the tactical squad charged and finished off the empty battlewagon.  Central combat saw only one wound on the nobs but easily passed leadership.

His turn five saw the grots without a cannon move toward the objective by the grot lobba.  The commandos moved toward the full landraider but failed the charge range.  My Apothecary finally died and then my captain took a second wound but didn't flee.

My turn six saw the tactical squad unload from the landraider and shoot down the commandos in a hail of bolter fire.  The other landraider tankshocked the cannon grots and the lobba which broke them both with the cannon grots going completely off the table.  My captain finally died and I made a note to no matter what, find the points for the relic blade as needing fours to wound was nigh impossible.

His turn six saw the lobba grots continue to flee off the table and his tankbustas failed to get the final hull point off the other landraider. Turn six was where it ended when rolled for and we counted it up.  We both had 2 objectives, both had warlord kills, then I had line breaker and had killed 2 heavy slots to his 1 killed in return which made it a two point win for me.

 

All in all it was a tightly contested game and I don't think either of us were expecting what the other brought so it made it interesting there as well.  I also took pleasure in the fact that another marine player (interestingly enough named Corey) was taking the other ork army represented that night to the woodshed as well.  It was not a good night to be a greenskin.

Ghost Stalkers

So this might be the post that gets Cheef going off the edge completely on my collection, we'll see though.  A while back he sold to me an older captain model that he was tired of painting over and over and some older style marines he had primed green to join him.  Instead of pulling these into the Lions of Harlech like he thought I was going to do, I did something a little different with them.  I'd received some similar shade of green marines from another source even farther back and joined them with this small force from Cheef.

I now present to you a small allied contingent of the Ghost Stalkers space marine chapter.  Yes, that's right, a new chapter.  Cause one chapter of marines is never enough.  No, I don't plan to expand this small force any beyond possibly filling out the partial squads unless very similarly painted marines just land in my lap somehow.  What there is will be where the line is drawn, no companies shall be formed or organized.  Merely a small allied contingent is all this is meant to be.

The force consists of a Captain, 1 full tactical squad, 2 partial tactical squads, a partial devastator squad, and a rhino.  A fair portion of the group is partially painted or merely primed, but as so many of the Lions are still need in paint, there are no plans to work on this force in the near future.

Thus this Captain has been reborn as Captain Andre Nemo of the Ghost Stalkers's 4th Company.  The only tweak to the model since getting him was a sword blade swap to something more relic blade, which is my preferred weapon of choice on a captain.

The Ghost Stalkers are an Iron Hands successor chapter.  They're a fleet based chapter that patrols the eastern fringes of the Imperium.  The Lions and the Stalkers have been allies for a number of years now, ever since a joint campaign to deal with an ork wagh that was starting to threaten their area of space.  These two chapters often exchange liaisons and coordinate their campaigns when possible and it isn't a rare occurrence for a ship of the Ghost Stalkers to be found within the Cymru System.  The Stalkers have a long and honorable tradition of service patrolling the main space lanes to prevent depredations by Eldar corsairs, ork incursions, chaos fleets raiding, and such.  They lean toward ship boarding actions and close quarters combat tactics in their training.  While readily accepting of bionics and other modifications, the Stalkers are not as driven in this regard as their primogenitors the Iron Hands.  They believe that while the flesh is weak, complete rejection of the flesh is turning away from the Emperor's work creating the space marine.  Thus while bionics are common in the chapter, they are not as obvious as with other Iron Hand chapters.


And that's it for this small update.  There should be more coming in the near future as I take advantage of this vacation.

Knight House

So I've been working on the fluff for my Knight House some and thought I'd share what there is so far.

Imperial Knight House Heorot

Commander:    Eorl Janus Hrothgar
World:        Knight World of Jutland in the Geats System
Heraldry:    Half White with Black Imperial Eagle
                   Half Dark Red with White Rook

The Knight World of Jutland was one of the last Knight Worlds rediscovered by the Great Crusade, but it is one of the most energetic in it's fanatical defense of the Imperium.  It has vows and oaths tying it to the Forge World of Goedrean.  It also has formalized oaths of defense and aid with the Lions of Harlech in the Cyrmu System.  Indeed, a strike cruiser and a trio of destroyers or frigates are often within the Geats System to aid in it's defense.

Jutland is a land of turbulent storm tossed seas, snow and ice covered islands and mountains, and deep treacherous islets.  It's people are a hearty sea faring folk that survive on fishing and raiding other villages to survive.  The Knight Houses of Jutland do their part to keep these raids from destroying villages and often have accepted oaths of fealty to protect villages near their keeps. 

The Imperial Knight House Heorot is one of the more successful Houses on the world.  It exemplifies what being an Imperial Knight means on the world of Jutland.  Minor Houses and Freelancers in the Geats System often look to Heorot for leadership in times of crisis.  While they have sworn some oaths of loyalty and assistance to the Forge World of Goedrean, their first loyalty is to the Imperium as a whole, not the Mechanicum.

Eorl Hrothgar has lead House Heorot for a great number of years now and has been grooming his eldest son, Edmund Hrothgar, for leadership of the House.  Other notable warriors of the house include Thane Stefan Beowulf, Thane Paulus Eadgils, and Thane Edmund Ohtere.  Also noteworthy is the Ceorl Viktor Beowulf, son of Stefan, who has earned the nickname "Grendel" for his slaying of monsterous sea serpents on Jutland.



And that's the fluff so far.  Hope you all enjoy it and since my vacation has officially started, I'm going to try and make some headway on a lot of the other pending posts the end of this week and next week.

The Big Game Highlights

So Saturday was the big apocalypse game, and overall it was fun.  There were definitely a few bumps in the road but all in all not too bad of a first outing.  The biggest thing that needs to be corrected for any future games is actually starting in the morning.  As it was, instead of everyone being there at 10am and starting at 11am, everyone was there by 12:30 and we started around 1:30, which meant after breaks and such, the third and final turn ended right around midnight.

So let's get to the pics of the table itself to start with.  Apologies now for how the pics look, the lighting was a The table was three boards pushed together on the long edges.  Deployment zones were corners with an 18inch buffer zone in the middle.

 

 

Next will be the pics of the forces of chaos and their orc allies.

 The forces of the Imperium deployed

 

 

A couple more shots of the ork and chaos forces.

 

 

So I had planned to take some more pics, but since the phone reception was borderline, my battery ran itself down to dead while I was amongst the ones waiting for the others to arrive.  It completely died soon after dice started rolling.


My personal contribution to the game was:
     1 Chapter Master with goodies
     9 five man Devastator Squads with Missile Launchers and Flakk
     6 five man Devastator Squads with Lascannons
     5 five man Devastator Squads with Plasma Cannons
     1 Avenger Fighter
     3 Stormtalons
     2 Landraider Terminus Ultras
My forces were pointed up as Star Phantoms for this game to use their Chapter Tactic rule allowing me to count salvo and heavy weapons as twinlinked for one turn.

And then my models fielded by others: a jump pack chaplain borrowed by the Blood Angel player fielding close to 100 Death Company models, and my 4 Super Heavy Tanks used by the Guard player.

However, on to some of the game highlights.  My personal favorite of the game was shooting down 4 Hell Turkeys and wounding a 5th enough for someone else to get the last hull point.  I also managed to ground and kill two Bloodthirsters and ground Angroth who took 7 wounds from titan D-weapons but managed to live due to lack of a turn 4.  I also managed to kill an Ork trukk, 5 Deff Kopters, a handful of boys and nobs, a few Chaos Terminators, and a Slaanesh chariot thing that looked like an old push mower being towed along.

Some of the interesting wrinkles and tricks pulled in the game included:
1.  Grey Knight Warp Quake to bust up the turn two heavy deep strike assault by demonic forces which saw a couple units killed, 3 misplaced which then were used to block their vehicles, and the rest back into reserve.

2.  The Blood Angel player taking a C'tan shard to make our enemies treat difficult terrain as dangerous.  That one was rough on the ork boys.

3.  An Inquisitor casting Prescience on a Titan for scatter rerolls on the D-weapon templates.

4.  (An enemy highlight but it was fun to watch) Over 600+ points of Death Company being killed by a Baneblade going up in an Apocalyptic explosion.

In the end, the Forces of the Imperium pulled out a roughly 12 point victory which isn't too shabby.  Each side had two objectives that scored a point for each turn number.  So Turn One they're worth 1 point each, Turn Two makes them Two Points each, etc.  Then there was a central objective worth double.  Both sides had their own objective and no one had the central one.  At the end of Turn Two, the Imperial Forces had ours, the central, and contested one of the chaos ones.  Turn Three saw Chaos holding one, contesting one, Center contested, and we held both of ours.  They also scored 2 Victory Points for destroying Super Heavy Tanks and we score 2 for killing a Stompa and the Lord of Skulls.

And last of all to finish this up, I finally FINALLY have seen the Taurus Prime in person and it was built in a way that I LIKE and that MAKES SENSE.  It had been Orkified into a Looted Wagon.  As an Imperial Guard vehicle, it's stink on a stick.  As an Ork vehicle?  Heck yeah, it works NICE.  So the problem is just that it was released for the wrong codex.

That's all for now and I'll see you later.

Deathwatch and a Big Game

So my eBay Deathwatch Kill Team arrived in the mail today.  10 models total to an ok painting standard.  8 are with bolters/stormbolters and then there is one plasma cannon and one heavy bolter.  My plan is still to use these models as Sternguard or Inquisitor retinue.

For Turn Signal on a Landraider fans

So my main task for the evening is getting prepped for an Apocalypse game that starts in the morning.  I'll be fielding two reserve Devastator companies, a quartet of flyers, and a couple Landraider Terminus Ultras.  Someone else is borrowing and fielding my four super heavy tanks.  Thus quite a large contingent of my models will get to see the playing field tomorrow.

My main goal for the evening is getting everything packed, double checked and loaded into the car tonight so it's easy to head out in the morning.  I'm only packing what's needed so that should help streamline deployment and set up tomorrow, but I want to make sure I don't forget any templates, extra dice, etc.  I've fielded more points in a game before, but this will hands down be the largest total point game I've been in so far.

I'll try to get some pictures and post some overall impressions of the game afterwards.  That's all for now Lions Fans and we'll see you all later.

Off Topic A Bit

So it's been one of those hectic crazy stretches between work and home which has prevented me from getting a couple normal blog posts done, so I wanted to take a bit of time to talk about what sort of projects I've got working on at the moment, what I want to get started, and what I need to get back to.  I wanted to do a Bat Rep on the CBT game I got in with Cheef last Sat but like the two true bloggers we are, neither of us took a single picture.  It was an enjoyable game that I was pretty sure part way in that he was going to clean my clock on, but my forces managed to rally enough to win the battle of attrition.  I do believe his Manticore tank put forth a performance worthy of a paint job, so I'm hoping to see that at least on one of his upcoming blogs.

So moving on, first of all let's talk about current projects.  I've got my first batch of Scions (with two more boxes coming for a totally of two 10 man squads) that are being assembled to represent Imperial Naval Marines, sort of an Imp Guard SBS team to back up the Naval Infantry that were previously shown in the blog.  I've also recently acquired the base rulebook and templates for Battle Fleet Gothic and have begun trying to learn those rules.

Next up we've got the Knight House fluff to finish and I need to finish the blog posts on the companies that I've already acquired of the Lions of Harlech.  There should be 3rd, 4th, and 5th Companies still left to do.  There is also an inbound purchase from eBay of a Death Watch Kill Team that will join the inquisition forces allied with the Lions.  My present plans are to field them as a Sternguard squad.  I'm kind of excited to see this group when they arrive as one of the marines is from the Emperor's Pointy Sticks of Turn Signals On A Landraider fame.   In addition to all that I want to see about finishing painting and basing my Eridani Light Horse and start painting on the Lions' Fleet units.

For the future plans, I'm looking for a 40K scale British WWII army Bren Carrier to use as a gun tractor for the Naval Infantry force.  If someone has a suggestion for this that doesn't run the $50 that the DKK Forge World option runs or the $45 off brand variants that I've found, I'd like to hear about it.  I'm also still looking for some cannon carriages to mount the autocannons and lascannons on so they look a bit more Naval Infantry shore party as well.

Last of all, I've started getting some bits to represent chapter serfs as well as terrain to start building a diorama of sorts to help showcase new models.  Plus I think it'd just be cool to have some terrain themed directly to my army.  To that end, RTVortil has agreed to cast me some watchers in the dark from the Dark Angels line that I have some conversion plans for.  I'm also looking at some laser cut terrain for purchase to start work on a great hall/command bunker piece.

So that's what all is on the agenda for the Lions and the Blog this year.  Again, if there are any questions, requests, or suggestions, feel free to ask or drop a line in the comments.

A New Ride

So I came home from work Thursday evening to find that my APC from Pig Iron Miniatures had arrived.  I think it's a nice looking kit though a bit longer than I thought it would be.  It's the same width and height roughly as  rhino but about a couple or so inches longer.  For a squad of Imperial Guard stand ins, ie my Inquisitor's naval shore party, it should work more than fine.


There are only a few bits to glue together with the majority of the kit being one piece.  This is a resin bit but it's hollowed out on the underside so it's not too hefty of  a model.  Then there is a resin turret and eight metal bits.  One is the back of the vehicle, two are options for the gun on the turret, a bit that covers the mold point on the turret, a hatch cover, and then three accessory bits.

side view

hollow underside

front side

with rhino for comparison

directions and bits

closer view of the bits

the turret assembled

the rear view and turret in place

All in all, I'm pleased with the kit and wouldn't mind a couple more perhaps.  It definitely has that landing craft feel that I was looking for for the naval infantry.  I didn't find any flaws or bubbles or any other issues at all, so I'm impressed with the quality of the kit.

So that's all for now and I'll see about getting some more of the Lions posted this weekend while I'm off work.