Working on the List

So I've started making progress on the giant to do list that was the last blog post.  First up is the 8th Donegal Guard.  I've got the Battalion Command lance and 2 other lances ready for basing material.  The Hussar leading 3 Mercuries is my favorite lance of the unit I think.  Nice classic pre-3025 mechs with lots of speed for scouting and harassing enemies.  There is still a lance to finish off the company in progress and then two more companies of mechs to get painted and based.

Next up is the Caselton Militia.  I got a lot of GHQ APC's primered and ready to get their red stripe added later this week.  I also got a batch of bases for said APC's to get added onto.  I still need to paint the edges of the bases and then get another batch prepped up.  There will be 4 platoons for a total of 16 bases so a bit of a ways to go here still.  I also need 8 bases for the already painted Pike and Hetzer lances.

 

And then finally the Ghost Bear PGC got primer coated as well.  I'm still not totally sure what color scheme these guys are getting but at least they're primered and ready for it.  While having some clan mechs in the unit, there is also a star of 5 Inner Sphere mechs that are Star League designs updated to Clan tech and the sort of non-Omni's that one would expect in a PGC.  There is a Marauder, a Banshee, a Gallowglas, and 2 Flashmans.  I still need another clan Omni to finish off the rest of the force but haven't found an option that I like yet.

So that's about all I've had time for but some progress beats no progress for sure.  Work is going to be a bit crazy for the next couple weeks so finding time to make sure there is progress taking place will hopefully keep me somewhat sane.  I'm in retail management and our store just lost a manager to promotion and another is out for maternity/paternity leave so it's made for some crazy work schedules.  Once we get past this week and next though, it should get a lot more normal though so it's all not too bad.

So thanks for stopping by all and don't forget I'm still looking for that great idea for getting all my bits organized and stored.  See you all next time.

Mechs, Tanks, and Marines

So progress has continued on the Caseltown Militia.  This unit has moved along quickly and I think they're coming out pretty well.

The one Battalion commander and the 3rd lance of mechs are almost done, just need to get them based to finish them off.

The large vehicles, the Behemoths, Alacorns, Shreks, and Marksmans will not be going onto bases.  So little would be visible that it just seems to not be worth it.  Thus these vehicles are all complete now.

The two Pegasus hover tanks just need based.  The Hetzers and Pikes I'm going to put bases together and get them complete before adding the vehicles to them.  So all in all, this has come along quite well I think.  I still have a lot of GHQ halftracks to do, a pair of Demolishers, plus all the basing mentioned above.  As a bit of a reward to myself for doing well making progress, I put together most of the Primaris marines from the new 40K starter box.

First up was the Hellblaster squad.  I really like the looks of the new plasma guns and think this will be a fun unit to have on the table top.

Next up was all the Intercessors and Sgts that go with them.  Again, I like the aesthetics of the new marines and it's a nice group of models.

Last up I got the first of the Interceptors.  I like the change in the jump pack for these guys but not totally sold on the guns.  Sort of on the fence on how these guys look.  So I still have the Captain model, the Ancient, and the other 2 Interceptors to go.  All in all I'm good with the new marines and as soon as I get some more of the Caseltown cleared off the desk, I want to start working on roughing out my ideas for how I'll be using the Primaris marines.

So that's all for now, thanks for stopping by and I'll see you all next time.

Caseltown Militia

So I'm continuing to make progress on the Davion Militia unit.  They're coming together pretty well and a number of lances are going into the completed side of things.  I'm also including an organization chart for the formation.  At this time, I've no plans to come up with names for all the slots like I normally do, just put some rank slots in where appropriate to keep it organized.  I know Cheef will like this post as well as the lance of UrbanMechs is complete.

5 Lances of Vehicles Done

2 of 3 Mech Lances Done

Caselton Militia

38th Defense Battalion
    Major
Alpha Company
    Captain, Vulcan
First Platoon
    Lt, Dervish
    Thorn
    Panther
    Wasp
Second Platoon
    Lt, UrbanMech
    UrbanMech
    UrbanMech
    UrbanMech
Third Platoon
    Lt, Commando
    Commando
    Commando
    Commando

Bravo Company
    Captain
First Platoon
    Lt, Puma Assault Tank
    Puma Assault Tank
    Puma Assault Tank
    Puma Assault Tank
Second Platoon
    Lt, Alacorn Heavy Tank
    Alacorn Heavy Tank
    Schrek PPC Carrier
    Schrek PPC Carrier
Third Platoon
    Lt, Behemoth Heavy Tank
    Behemoth Heavy Tank
    Behemoth Heavy Tank
    Behemoth Heavy Tank

Charlie Company
    Captain
First Platoon
    Lt, Demolisher Heavy Tank
    Demolisher Heavy Tank
    Marksman Artillery Tank
    Marksman Artillery Tank
Second Platoon
    Lt, Hezter Wheeled Assault Gun
    Hezter Wheeled Assault Gun
    Hezter Wheeled Assault Gun
    Hezter Wheeled Assault Gun
Third Platoon
    Lt, Pike Support Vehicle
    Pike Support Vehicle
    Pike Support Vehicle
    Pike Support Vehicle

43rd Reconaissance Battalion
    Major
Alpha Company
    Captain
First Platoon
    Lt, Saracen Medium Hover Tank
    Saracen Medium Hover Tank
    Saracen Medium Hover Tank
    Saracen Medium Hover Tank
Second Platoon
    Lt, Saladin Assault Hover Tank
    Saladin Assault Hover Tank
    Saladin Assault Hover Tank
    Saladin Assault Hover Tank
Third Platoon
    Lt, Pegasus Scout HoverTank
    Pegasus Scout HoverTank
    Pegasus Scout HoverTank
    Pegasus Scout HoverTank

Bravo Company
    Captain
First Platoon
    Lt, Packrat Long Range Patrol Vehicle
    Packrat Long Range Patrol Vehicle
    Packrat Long Range Patrol Vehicle
    Packrat Long Range Patrol Vehicle
Second Platoon
    Lt, Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad
Third Platoon
    Lt, Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad

Charlie Company
    Captain
First Platoon
    Lt, Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank
    Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank
    Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank
    Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank
Second Platoon
    Lt, Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad
Third Platoon
    Lt, Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad
    Mechanized Infantry Squad

3rd Mech Lance, Battalion Commander, and Tank Lance in progress

I've got another block of vehicles primed for the militia and they'll start getting wash and paint layers over the next couple days.  I also need to come up with the primer I used when I did my Eridani Light Horse so I can get going on all the Aerospace fighters to finish off the 21st Striker Regiment.

So that's where we're at for now.  I'm happy with the progress I'm making on all of this and it should continue to keep moving along I hope.  That's all for now and I'll see you all next time.

Half A Week Late

Well, this is about half a week after I had intended to get this up, but here it finally is.  The Saturday night before last I got my second game of 8th Edition 40K in, this time against Cheef and his Orcs.  It was a very close fun game and I'm glad to finally get an edition where the focus was back on having fun rather than trying to remember 30 pages of special rules plus all the army and unit special rules.  I'm hoping to get a lot more games of 40K in now.  Once I get the BattleTech cleared off the paint desk to make some room, I want to get the Primaris Marines from the starter box assembled and give them a try as well.

Now this won't be a full battle report but rather an overview with pics with my impressions thrown in here and there.

Here is the force I took with a Captain, 2 Tactical Squads, 3 Contemptor Dreadnoughts, and 1 Venerable Dreadnought.  I love that there is a force chart variant that will let me fit 6 Dreadnoughts into a list but since we were only playing 1,000 points, 4 is what I got to take.  They felt very effective and easy to use in the game, but Cheef's unit of Tank Bustas definitely could put a hurt on them.  We played a pretty standard mission of kill points plus the few bonus VPs for first blood and such.  Deployment was the long table edge triangle one.

Cheef's force deployed in the pic above.  He had a mob of boys, a mob of gretchin, some gretchin artillery, a mek on a bike, an orc weird boy, his Matilda wagon full of tank bustas, Snickrot and some boys. and a trio of buggies.  He managed to steal the initiative and went first.

This is my deployment, I was concentrating toward my left flank to keep my force together to support itself.

I focused early in the game on thinning out the unit of boys and gretchin.  In hindsight, I should have put more into killing the wagon earlier to get more early wounds on it as at the end of the game, it kept hanging on by just a wound or two.

When I finally really focused on the wagon, one dread was already starting to feel the pain and then when I charged it, between the two I just didn't roll well enough to do the amount of damage I needed to do.

Cheef managed to use his orc mystical powers to jump his unit of boys into my zone and then with the sneaky boys ended up over running one of my tactical squads.

It was at this point that the action really got moving and I forgot to keep taking pictures.  It ended up just one point apart and he was close enough to scoring more points that I'm perfectly happy in calling it a draw.  It was definitely enjoyable and I'm looking forward to doing it again.

Now getting back to the BattleTech mentioned earlier.  I have 3 lances of vehicles almost done.  They're not fated to end up in the same companies of the militia unit, but I wanted to test the scheme out on multiple vehicle types with the first batch.  I've got another wash layer to do on them and then they need based.  I'm not planning on putting the large tanks on a base at the moment.

Now this is the part that Cheef has been waiting for, the start of the UrbanMech lance for the militia.  They've been primed and got the first wash layer over the green.  Next up they'll get the red stripe down the side and the silver highlights.  It's a good first progress on them.  My goal is by the end of the week to have the 3 almost done lances finished, the Urbies finished, and I'd like to get another batch of 3 vehicle lances started.  If I can get the 3 mech lances and 4 companies worth of vehicles done, I'll have enough room to start working on the Primaris Marines.

Speaking of the Primaris Marines, I'm still leaning towards a Lion's successor chapter for them and keeping it Primaris only.  This means I will NOT be collecting an entire other chapter, just a decent small group of Primaris to use in games. I am currently leaning towards calling them the Lions Rampant or Ghost Lions but I'm willing to entertain ideas if someone has a great one out there.

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

One Done, One Started, and a New Begining

So the 2 Battalions of the 8th Donegal Guard are now completed.  I finished basing the last company yesterday which was 1st Battalion's C Company.

C Company
First Lance
    Captain Octavius Kreuger, Griffin
    1st Lt. Nicole Summers, Valkyrie
    Reginald Fisher, Valkyrie
    Zachary Danvers, Jenner
Second Lance
    2nd Lt. Rebecca Norman, Panther
    Abigail Osborne, Panther
    Dylan Baines, Javelin
    Crystal Walker, Javelin
Third Lance
    2nd Lt. Victor Hamilton, Dervish
    Timothy Wilkes, Whitworth
    Sharon Kilralry, Whitworth
    Darius Barnes, Whitworth

And here is the completed force all together.  This should make a nice unit for defending or attacking in urban or built up areas.  It's been a fun unit to complete and I'm happy with how they all came out.  Now since this gives me 2 units of Steiners now, the other being my two lances of 20th Arcturan Guard, next up will be a Davion militia unit to eat up most of the pile of unused BattleTech minis.  To take a break from the mechs I've been painting, armored units will be up first.  The unit will be from Caselton which is in the coreward tip of the Federated Suns.  It will be again 2 Battalions but only will have 1 company of mechs with the rest all being tanks or mechanized infantry.

This is the first 3 lances being worked on.  The Pack Rat lance still needs their windows painted silver and then another layer of red before they get based.  I think the color scheme makes it pretty easy to identify them as Davion militia so we'll see how they come out.  I know Cheef will like this unit as they're going to have a lance of UrbanMechs in it.

Also I got to make a trip to a nearby game store, not the Hobby Town I normally go up to, and got my first game of 8th Edition 40K in.  Like every good blogger, I didn't take a single picture.  It went a little slow with lots of looking at books but all in all I like it.  Most of the time looking in the books was where we were use to older editions and trying to find rules that are no longer there.  I'll need a few more games to really get use to it, but first impressions are favorable for sure.

So that's all for now and I'll see you all next time.