Battle Report: Proxius Maximus
March 9th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
I got in a few games over the weekend with the Daemonhunter army the Justicar from my last post is for. Of course, since he was the only actual inquisition model I had done, everything else was being run as a proxy. Eldar for sisters of battle, and chaos marines for grey knights. Oh sweet ironies.
I didn’t really expect to win. I rarely do on the first few times out with a new army, let alone two new codices. And I wasn’t entirely disappointed. I claimed a draw in Capture and Control vs. a very competitive ork army. I got a bit lucky and disabled the battlewagon carrying the Big Mek and 15 burnaboys on round 1. The game was a close one with me contesting both objectives, but not really close to claiming either one. Had the game gone longer, I’d have most likely lost outright. Best part of the game? My 5 celestians + Cannoness holding up the entire burnaboy mob plus big mek for 4 turns before I finally ran out of faith points to give them invulnerable 3+ saves.
The second game saw my first run-in with a Chaos Daemons army. This is from one of the more skilled and competitive players in the club, too. He brought a nurgle army with 2 soul grinders, a greater daemon, Epidemius, and 3 large squads each of plague bearers and nurglings. Let me tell ya, that army is stupid-hard to destroy. It was Annihilation and I only scored a single point off 1 soul grinder while he nearly tabled me. Grey knights are not very good at fighting plague bearers since they’re about the only thing that still gets a save from Psycannons, and it’s not long before they start all swinging with power weapons. It’s a cheese list, but at a tournament that’s what you expect to run into and need to deal with. Plus, the guy is actually a fun opponent and a good sport. I don’t mind cheese when I know I’m facing it going in J
My final game was against another ork player, this time one fielding 3 squads of mega armored nobs all in transports. Gah! That was absolutely brutal. They may not have invulnerable saves, but that 2nd wound usually makes up for it. I’m not used to piling 40 wounds on an ork mob and only see one fall over. Still, it was fun, and it’s not a list I’d had the chance to play against before. In the end, I had racked up 3 kill points, but had given up 9 in the process. Sisters are a tricky bunch to use effectively, and I just didn’t have the right kind of firepower to stop 25 2+ save 2-wound orks that all had power klaws.
All in all, I had fun, but the army is going to continue simmering on the back-burner for a while. I just haven’t got the cash to build such an expensive army right now, and I’ve got some more ideas to try with my chaos marines to mix it up a little.
Grey Knight Justicar, Ahoy!
March 5th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Well, I got the first Grey Knight Justicar all finished up in time to post today. Hope you like him 
I like how the base came out. The armor was painted using the official scheme, though next time I’ll thin out the blue ink just a tad more. Likewise the purple ink on the fabric will be thinned a bit. Still, for a first try, not too shabby. The purple livery is going to be one of the binding visual elements for my army. Both the Sisters of Battle, and the Grey Knights, along with the Inquisitor in charge, will all have some purple livery on them.
The spade on his personal heraldry was my first attempt at using waterslide transfers. Yeah, I know it’s a tad off-center, but not enough to notice at a glance on the table-top. My idea is to have each grey knight squad have a different suit. This one is the Ace of Spades, the rest of his squad will be sporting spades with some different black patterns mixed into the red background. At least, they will whenever I get my hands on some more grey knights to paint 
Project-a-holic
March 2nd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Anyone else a project-o-holic? I am. I have more gaming projects alone then hours in a day it seems, and I keep getting neat ideas that make me add more. The latest? Finding a way to build a competitive Daemonhunter army for 40k.
I started into the hobby on the Witch Hunters, but didn’t go far before making the switch to chaos marines. I had enjoyed the models, but painting a ton of nearly-identical metal minis at my glacial painting speed was daunting. I’ve always loved the fluff, and the models, and the play style was interesting (if challenging). Now that I’ve got my painting skills up to snuff for relatively speedy quality, and some experience under my belt, I can actually consider the army again.
You see, Daemonhunters and Witch Hunters can ally back and forth, using several of each other’s units. I like them both. But I like the Grey Knight heavy support options better then the Sister of Battle ones, and since those are the only units that can’t cross army lines, I’m creating a core Daemonhunter army as the root. Individually, Grey Knights are really good, baring their lack of assault grenades. But they’re so pricey on points that you’re even more outnumbered then just about anyone except maybe Deathwing armies. The solution? Sisters of Battle. Dirt cheap in comparison, still sporting power armor, excellent shots, and they bring extra anti-tank weaponry otherwise lacking from the knights.
I happen to have a couple of grey knight justicars still laying around, so I’m working on building and painting them, mostly for the fun of it since the models are indeed lovely and absolutely covered in details. I wanted to also give this army the royal treatment, complete with some nice special basing instead of the typical paint-and-flock like my chaos marines, or labor-intensive greenstuff-a-thon that my eldar got. So, I made 4 bases all with variations of a ruined cathedral / tile floor, and made a mold. Now I’m casting up some solid plastic bases to use that I can make a ton of with very little effort. And I can add the odd little extra here and there for special characters and the like if I want.
With a little luck, I might have one done by Thursday’s update, but I’d guess it’ll be next week. All depends on how ye ole job-hunt goes this week.
The End of an Era…
February 26th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
The long-time 40K web comic Turn Signals on a Land Raider is shutting down. This is a sad day indeed. Like the owner of this website, the comic’s author has hit upon some hard times. A print version of the comic was contemplated, but Games Workshop squashed the idea in order to protect thier Intelectual Property rights. The burden of the comic’s hosting is now outweighing it’s usefulness, and it must come down.
Now, legally, GW is completely correct. And I can see thier point of view in not wanting to let other people make money off them. That’d be like someone selling copies of my posts (if people were actually into paying money for them, anyway).
Still, I would have much rather seen them try to get the comic published under the Black Library brand then just give an outright “No”. Then both parties could make some money and the IP would still be in GW’s hands. Alas, we don’t always get what we want.
Here’s to TSoaLR! May your future endeavours prove just as fun!
Moments that make you go D’oh!
February 23rd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Ever had one of those moments in a game where something just goes totally and unexpectedly wrong? You know what I’m talking about. The kind of moment where there’s nothing you can do about it but say “d’oh!”. I had one of those moments over the weekend.
I was giving my eldar a test drive. The poor chaps haven’t hit the table in over a year, and I’ve got a few new things in the list to try out. It looks like it’ll work well enough and all seems to be going well. I’ve got pathfinders in cover sniping the main fire lane. Guardians with a conceal warlock and a farseer in the middle of my table quarter, and some banshees and avengers in serpents ready to strike. The falcon is hovering in cover and waiting for targets while the war walkers go around and outflank. The space wolves won’t know what hit em!
Well, then his long fang squad managed to draw a bead on the falcon. It’s ok though, I get cover and holo fields and he’s just got 2 krak missiles. I’ll make it fine. He hit. A penetrating hit no less. Hmm, well I’ll roll cover and… crap. Well the holo fiel- a what? 4 and 5? Crap, a pillbox before I even take my first turn.
But that’s not the real d’oh moment. That was just a warm-up. The real kicker was next turn when those same long fangs shot up the guardians. It’s ok though, they’re in a set of ruins and they have fortune now. I should be fine. Failed 4 saves. Re-roll. Still failed 4 saves. Well it’s just guardians, no major loss. A fluke really. Just gotta pass that Ld10 morale check and… box-cars? You’re kidding right? I knew I should have taken Embolden instead. Oh well, they shouldn’t run too far… 11”…. … 1 guardian goes over the board edge? D’OH! I should just keep my mouth shut…
