+ SKAVEN 2.0 +

My new skaven list has changed a bit, particularly after a disastrous game against dragon-led khorne mortals in which I managed to do everything I told myself not to do, including engaging with the vermin lord by himself and slamming the abomination into the frenzied dragon. Neither of those combats were pretty, with the a-bomb being 1-shoted and Vermy barely escaping the red knights with his life.

Here's where I'm at now. The biggest changes from the list against khorne is the inclusion of a BSB, who was sorely missed, and a 10th power die (the engineer was level 1 before). These came at the cost of 2 rat swarms, 3 gutters and the spikes off the HPA, all of which won't be missed too much.

L: Vermin Lord = 500
H: Plague Priest - foul pendant, flail, level 2 = 169
H: Engineer - dispel scroll, level 2 = 125
H: Chieftain - BSB, warpstone armor, shield = 102

C: 30 Clanrats - full command, shields, warpfire thrower = 225
C: 25 Clanrats - full command, shields, ratling gun = 187.5
C: 25 Clanrats - full command, shields, ratling gun = 187.5
C: 20 Slaves - musician = 42
C: 20 Slaves - musician = 42

S: 6 Jezzails = 120
S: 6 Gutter Runners - deathrunner = 84
S: 7 Globadiers = 70
S: 7 Globadiers = 70

R: Abomination = 235
R: Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
------
2249
10/6

Thoughts so far? The WLC is very hard to hit with, jezzails losing skirmishing is pretty huge, rolling to hit with ratling guns sucks (and both of mine misfired more often than got to shoot), the abomination is not auto-win, and the vermin lord takes as much finesse as I thought he would.

I've got a game against brets tomorrow, where we're both running 10 pd of magic for the first time in our warhammer careers. I expect mass miscasting ... but read all about it next year!

In the meantime, here's the BSB I smashed up last night:

He's got a marauder horsemen shield that goes on the arm holding the standard, but it'll be painted separately. Scheme will be mostly bleached bone armor, so I added that tatty loincloth for some kind of green on the model.

Happy New Year!

Painting: Nurglettes
Building: N/A

+ UPDATES: 40K RTT & FANTASY MADNESS +

Definitely don't want to work on this paper right now, so let's get you all caught up to speed on the little warhammer I've been up to that isn't forum surfing or endless list making ...

40K

Back in November I played in a 2000 point 40k tournament, which turned out to be 3 games of pure KP games, much to the chagrin of pretty much everyone. Here's an ultra-quick rundown of the event.

Me:

Deathscreamer Lord
Plasma Termi-ciders
Plasma Dread
Missile Dread
Melta CSM in rhino
Flamey CSM in rhino
Shooty CSM
1k Sons w/ warptime sorcerer
10+ Demons
Missile Havoks
Defiler
Oblit

Pretty close to 100% painted, and I'm really hoping to get them back to that level, particularly after the strong showing in the games to come ...

ONE:

IG w/ Creed, infantry blob, melta vets in valks x2, plasma vets, outflanking demolisher, russ, basi, etc, etc

Essentially I crushed him to pulp, gaining a staggering KP total and giving very little away. His dude messing with my reserves was irritating, but otherwise I was able to hold my points well and just smash away. We actually ended turn 4 on time, but since other people kept playing we could have continued, which would only have given me more of a KP lead over the other players. This was the only IG player at the event - and again, no one knew it was all KP all the time - and there was some bitterness at my early KP boost.

+14 KP

TWO:

CSM w/ 2x lash princes, greater demon, 5x melta plaguers in rhinos, defiler

A great and incredibly bloody game, where his plague marines proved their resilience in spades. My 1k Sons also showed what a 3/4+ save with fearless can do, as the tizz boys + deathscreamer locked down 2 plague squads round after round, deathscreamer reaping away. I didn't play as well as I could, throwing my dread plasma cannon away early and not popping a single rhino despite those being far and away the easiest KP available. He eventually beat me by a couple KP, but I didn't do so bad considering I went for the hardest targets possible.

+8 KP

THREE:

CSM w/ tizz sorcerer + tizz possessed in raider, 2 big CSM squads (1 rhino), berzerkers in rhino, 10 demons, 2x vindis

Ironically I had actually designed this list for the guy, out of the models he had available ... Despite being very very afraid of the double vindis, I was able to start stunning or destroying them fairly early on, letting my rhino squads perform a heavy flank of his force, with deep strike troops adding their weight in timely fashion. My dreads deserve commendation for this game, as they were able to lock down units that literally couldn't hurt them - possessed + sorcerer, demons - and grind them apart. Another fun game that turned my way once the wall of steel was cracked. The berzerkers proved to be a real thorn, costing about 14 CSM to put them down.

+9 KP

All told I earned 31 KP, which handily nabbed first place and $90 in gift certs (!!). I was well chuffed, though a comment on the IG player and my 4 turn brutalizing of him. It's not like the dude quite or changed his army or something after me - 2 other players got to go up against him (including the CSM I played final round), and nobody walked all over him like I was able to. So there.

Special commendation goes out to the deathscreamer - 1 jam all 3 games?! - and the dreads, who tenaciously held up through all games, often needing to be completely disassembled before giving up a KP, and were able to get some real stomping in due to judicious use of reserves. Very happy to see my weird toys work for me.

FANTASY

Rather than start more blogs I won't keep up to cover my fantasy exploits, expect to see some squarebase content cropping up here, as the new skaven book and a new escalation league at the FLGS have me really buzzing. Last week I finished the modeling for my skaven army redux, which mostly involved building some big bads:

VERMIN LORD




ABOMINATION




TRETCH CRAVENTAIL


Unfortunately the coming of winter means I won't get these primed and painted until probably Spring, barring I borrow somebody's basement to spray in ... But expect to hear of some exploits, I'll be painting to 1k once the semester ends, with just the big dudes waiting for the thaw.

Painting: Nurglings
Building: ???

+ MEQ SMEQ: MOAR FIGHTING +

The sisters got a break last night as some upstart Ultramarines stepped up to the plate in their place. Previous to this game I had run my Noise Fleet against his orks in BFG, and had met with success after powering almost the entirety of my fleet across his prows, locked on and lances blazing for great devastation. Would Evil Team have a repeat performance in 28mm GrimDark??

Anarchonquistadores vs Ultramarines [1000]

I took a 98% painted force (only the pfister unpainted), which unfortunately meant I had no rhinos, so was back in 4th edition:

Lord - MoT, powerfist, combi-flamer
3 Terminators - IoCU, 3 combi-plas, 2 powerfists, 1 chainfist
10 CSM - IoCU, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
6 1k Sons - AS w/ doombolt
Oblit

He brought the expanded version of his AoBR marines:

Librarian - terminator armor
5 Terminators - assault cannon
10 Tactical - missile launcher, meltagun, powerfist; rhino
10 Tactical - missile launcher, flamer, homer
5 Scouts - bp + ccw, homer
5 Assault - flamer, power weapon, melta bombs

Game: 2 objectives, pitched battle

The table was essentially a large ruin center-left, and two smaller ruins to the right of center, one in each of our zones. Some woods in the corners and such as well. I placed an objective in the southern edge of the ruin, and he put one in the northeast corner. So we'd be fighting in the ruin then ...

Chaos won The Roll and I took it, putting flamer CSM + lord ready to push into the ruin and claim my objective, with the shooty CSM in the ruin to the right to provide some ranged support on the second objective and intercept his various deepstrikers. The oblit hung out with them on the flank, and the 1k Sons limbered up for a speed-hobble onto the second objective. In response Ultras deployed the rhino with 10 tactical pointed at the ruin, combat squaded the other unit and deployed flamer half in the wood northwest corner and missile half behind the rhino, and the scouts infiltrated into the wood southwest behind the main ruin and in my DZ. Termies & assaulters were in orbit.

I'll note now that it's silly I don't bring along my camera and snap at least a deployment shot, especially as I'm playing with so many painted things of late. Bah.

ONE
Flamer CSM push up into the main ruin and nab an objective, 1k Sons hoof it for the second objective, shooty CSM move to the edge of their ruin closer to the action and the oblit walks to get a shot on the rhino. With all the running he forgot to take it.

Ultras respond with a similarly quiet turn. Scouts sneak a little closer through the woods, flamer marines mobilize for the ruin (they've got a bit of walking to do though), and the rhino boosts to pull up alongside the ruin section with the second objective. This exposes his missile marines, who slam the flamer CSM with a frag that does nothing.

TWO
Chaos smells blood! The evil termies teleport down and go for the missile marines, scattering a hearty 7" but staying easily within plasma range. The Sons, joined by the fistlord, stumble up through the ruins and near the rhino, knowing they'll be rapid fired and/or charged next turn unless somebody can pin that thing. To that end the autocannon (glances off the 'bolter), CSM lascannon (cover saved) and oblit (missed) all fail to open it up. The termies follow that up by only killing 2 marines despite 5 hits, but the squad breaks and leaves the table.

So do the blue boys! The assault marines drop down but scatter onto the flamer CSM, returning to orbit with a 6 mishap. The scouts stay where they are, the flamer marines continue moving into position and the rhino drives 6" into the ruin proper and dumps its marines to give the Sons + Lord hell. A rapid firing later and 2 robots drop, as well as the sorcerer, who catches a boltround in the fancy hat. The marines have driven into chaos' teeth though, so revenge will be swift.

THREE
Realizing they should get moving if they're going to get to that second objective, the shooty CSM mobilize and start running. Oblit takes a walk (but effectively has 0 targets now, ruins blocking LoS), and the fistlord takes control of the 1k Sons (MoT ftw!) and gets ready to hurt the blue lapdogs. With a dozen plus rounds from the flamer CSM, Mr. Fister and friends reduce the tacticals to 3 models, which are assaulted my the Sons and all killed by the lord. Elsewhere, the terminators run back into the game, chasing for the five Ultras with flamer ...

The assault marines continue to cower in their thunderhawk, but the librarian + terminators hit the table, homering in off of the flamer marines and close to the second objective. With the help of the flamer marines they down the remaining Sons and leave the fistlord on his own, but thoroughly undaunted. Neither scouts nor rhino move.

FOUR
Time for fighting! The fistlord throws himself into the flamer marine combat squad, the evil termies slam into their blue counterparts, and the flamer CSM pounce on the rhino parked in front of them and threatening to contest objectives. (Shooty CSM power for the second objective and start mounting the steps to the ruins, while the oblit takes a walk and does a lot of nothing.) The flamer CSM strike first, raining krak down upon the blue rhino and detonating its fuel tanks, losing three (!!!) marines in the explosion. The fistlord follows that up by brushing off the tacticals' attaks and killing the four marines that were left (1 had died somehow, maybe obliterated), massacring a strong 6" back into the flamer CSM squad. The termies faired less awesomely, losing 2 for the price of 1 termi (should have put it on the libby, but didn't for some reason), but held.

Assault marines return to the field, dropping and sticking near the shooty CSM but failing to flamer or bolt pistol any of them down. The scouts move up to the windows of the center ruin and make faces at the chaos marines ... And the Ultra terminator sarge chops down the chainfister before he can strike.

FIVE
With the clock running out, the chaos boys up the aggression factor to end this thing. The fistlord solos again and hurls himself through the windows of the ruin, ignoring the attaks of the weakling scouts but only downing a couple, and they hold. The flamer CSM, still smoking from the rhino explosion, descend upon the assault marines and flame, shoot and bludgeon them to death, consolidating back onto their objective. And the shooty CSM, with strong move and assault rolls, boost through the ruins near the central objective and tackle the librarian + 3 terminators (1 having been sniped by the oblit as the CSM closed in). Combat leaves the libby with just 1 terminator bodyguard, for perhaps a dead traitor marine.

Just a little grinding this turn. The fistlord slaps away scout combat knives and then cleans the squad up, massacring back through the ruins of the ruin and headed for that librarian ... Who turns it on for once and kills two CSM. The CSM are able to drag the last terminator down, but lose by 1 and hold.

SIX
Carnage continues, with just 1 Ultra left on the board. The fistlord slams into the librarian, who reacts faster and stabs his force sword into the traitor general. Tzeentch smiles on his blood-soaked champion and saves the wound, and the fistlord returns the favor by instant deathing the loyalist.

CHAOS WIN

A fun game, with a 1000 point list I quite like. The lack of mobility would certainly have hurt in a multi-objective game or against a faster or more ranged army, but this "A Taste of Tizz" list definitely got the job done. I suppose 1k Sons surviving to turn 3 was actually better than usual too :P A+ to the fistlord though, cleaned out 3 of 4 scoring units essentially by himself!

Building: Nurglings
Painting: Oblit 2?

+ MORE SISTER SLAPPING! +

Laid the smack down on those gluttons for punishment Sisters yesterday, in a game in which my dice were notably quite kind overall, with not too many crazy things happening either way. Just lots and lots of 3+ to hit & wound ftw ...

Anarchonquistadores vs Sisters [1500]

I actually ran my pure undivided list, which I'd like to make my go to 1500 point list for random pick up games, as it has models I like and the undivided theme is really satisfying (to me anyway):

Lord - MoU, daemon weapon, bike, melta bombs, icon
3 Terminators - IoCU, 3 combi-plasma, 2 powerfists, 1 chainfist
10 CSM - IoCU, 2 meltaguns, AC w/ powerfist; rhino w/ armor
9 CSM - IoCU, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer; rhino w/ armor
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon, melta bombs
10 Demons
6 Havoks - IoCU, 3 missile launchers
Oblit
Oblit

He brought a pretty solid 1500 pointer, but again with some fun units that it's nice to see used (at all, but especially @ 1.5k):

Cannoness - MC eviscerator, jump pack, mantle, litanies, book
5 Dominions - 4 stormbolters, VSS w/ power weapon, meltas; priest w/ power weapon, meltas; immolator w/ MM, armor, smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, heavy flamer, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino w/ armor, smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, heavy flamer, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino w/ armor, smoke
15 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS w/ eviscerator
5 Seraphim - 2 inferno pistols, VSS w/ power weapon, meltas?
Exorcist - smoke
Penitent

Game: KP, Table Quarters

He went first, but partially due to his penitent raging fast right through the enormous ruin that dominated the center of the table, he decided to engage my cluster of forces board center instead of I guess picking a flank and cracking it. I was able to bring a withering amount of firepower and then combat attaks into play, as he had moved within my boys' reach and would not be able to escape. He conceded turn 4 or so, with the jump canny, the exorcist and 2 fleeing seraphim left, along with a couple immobilized vehicles.

CHAOS WIN

More unit-by-unit for evil team:

Biker Lord - In all the games were this guy has faced sisters he's been instrumental in causing his own death through 1's and being a solo-charging idiot. This time I attached him to the shooty CSM squad (bikers can attach to infantry, right? Just move slow?) and lent bolt rounds, until the unit slammed 10 sisters and the demofist exploded 4 of them with a conservative 2 rolled for his angry gauntlet. So ... he didn't kill himself and got to punch somebody!

Termies - Dropped early, threw plasma into 10 sisters (no SotM) and killed 2 girls + 1 terminator on overheat. Another powerfist dropped to a meltagun, and the chainfister decapitated an eviscerator VSS as she likewise gutted him. So 3 girls for 150 points? Eh, suppose I could have hung back a bit instead of dropping up the guts.

Melta CSM - Rhino was exorcised first turn, but as the game went down center table that mattered less. Melta'd the penitent and stunned the immolator before game was called.

Flamer CSM - Thanks to their rhino smashing through the central ruin and surviving return fire, these boys got up and stuck in damn fast. Flamed and mauled the foot sister squad, then weathered an impressive round of guided dominion fire before holding the combined charge of dominions + priest + jump canny. With the help of the demons counter-charging next turn, they would kill the unit and priest, getting ready to pummel the canny into submission had the game continued.

Shooty CSM - Failed to drop the AV11 penitent (rolled 4 10's for auto & plasma pens), took some damage from rapid firing girls, then combined with the biker lord to kill those 10 sisters.

Demons - As above, helped the flamer CSM trash the dominions.

Havoks - Continued to be idiots. Deployed hard left flank to throw krak through the sister motorpool, but triple krak couldn't get through a cover-saving rhino first turn. Second turn threw 3 more into a rhino in the open, but couldn't manage the 3+ needed. Seraphim predictably came down to harass them and killed the meatshield marines, so the havoks hit them with 2 of 3 frag templates - 0 died from 10 hits. Lame.

Oblits - One detonated a rhino he was 3" from, the other slapped a plasma template on the seraphim after the frags failed, and killed 3 of 5, sending them running. Works for me.

I'm contemplating putting the defiler back in to replace the lackluster havoks. My defiler usually gets 1 shot, scores a hit, obliterates a unit utterly, then is killed in return. With the havoks, I get to have more undivided marines on the table, and they're technically harder to kill. Just, also idiots, and the defiler can at least fight in combat a bit. I suppose I would probably reserve the defiler every game, unless I were going first and had a hot shot first turn.

Other news, not playing in that tournament after all. A good friend is up from Richmond, so we'll be shooting pool, seeing horror movies and maybe playing fantasy instead!

Painting: Oblit
Building: N/A

+ INCOMING TOURNAMENT +

Took a week off of 40k last week to get some fantasy games in with my Warriors of Tzeentch - marginal victory vs undivided warriors, close draw vs brets (and wow are brets unreal with those wards + CR that they have going on). Pretty sure I'll be using my Wednesday night gaming this week to paint obliterator #2 ... because Saturday is a local team tourney! Two 1250 points armies team up for three 4-player, 2500 point bashfests in one day. I really am looking forward to it, and looking forward to playing it fast and keeping it light - I figure me and my sisters buddy will run up against at least one disgusting WAAC team, but so be it.

My half of the 2500:

Chaos Lord - MoT, deathscreamer, melta bombs
3 Terminators - IoCU, 3 combi-plasma, 2 powerfists, AC w/ chainfist
10 CSM - IoCU, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon, melta bombs
6 Noise Marines - blastmaster, icon
13 Lesser Demons
Obliterator
Obliterator
-----------
1249 / 8 KP

We decided we should go 100% painted, which means no transports for me, but I really like the list. Lot of plasma going on too, which should help out with at least the deathguard army I know will be there (teamed up with Tau!) ... Our armies should look pretty cool on the table too, with my dark dark dark marines plus his white armored nuns.

Stay tuned for carnage!

Painting: Oblit #2

+ NUN-BASHING KONTINUES +

Figured I'd finally toss up something about my game last Wednesday. Another throwdown with the Sisters, this time testing another of the GT missions, "Suicide Squad." If I can find a comp with Adobe Acrobat I'll post up the missions, I enjoyed the two more extreme ones we played so far ...

Anarchonquistadores vs Sisters [1850]

His list had solidified a bit more, but was essentially the same:

Cannoness - MC blessed weapon, book, auto-pass faith thing
Cannoness - MC eviscerator, jump pack, 2+ armor, mantle
Priest - melta bombs?
5 Dominions - 4 storm bolters, VSS w/ power weapon; immolator w/ MM
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino
15 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator
6 Seraphim - 2x flamers, VSS w/ power weapon, melta bombs
6 Seraphim - 2x inferno pistols, VSS w/ melta bombs?
Exorcist
Penitent
Penitent

Deployment: Diagonals
Primary: Suicide Squad lives and enemy's dies (20) or both die (10)
Secondary: Most KP
Tertiary: More scoring units (or just units?) in the enemy zone at game end

Suicide Squad was a troop choice, and gained Fearless and 1 buff (+1 BS, WS, S, or relentless). He chose his big foot squad, which the foot cannoness joined, and I chose my shooty CSM squad, which the deathscreamer joined. We both chose +1BS for our squads (though relentless was tempting to get a walking autocannon, and more bolter/plasma range).

Sisters went first, and first turn nightfight probably only helped him out. Chaos retaliation was really ganked by my lads' inability to see through the gloom, though I had a LOT of fire all in range of the only target I needed to kill - the penitent storming towards my suicide squad! Everything failed, and the penitent would spend turns grinding the squad down to 3 CSM + the screamer, as all that krak + 1 melta bomb couldn't stop the 80-or-less point thing. It was only the timely intervention of an obliterator (who took 2 turns to stumble into a combat 8" away!) that crumped the engine. My suiciders spent the remaining turns running away from any sisters who might take them out - they ended the game with 2 marines + the screamer with 2 wounds.

At that point the Sisters didn't have too many options left, and were in fact tabled in turn 6. The flamer CSM in their rhino and slammed through some woods to get at the enemy suicide squad, summoning demons down turn 2 within assault range of the chicks. The demons would beat the nuns for a huge number of turns, eventually killing the squad and only being taken down by the cannoness and a countercharge by the dominions. It helped that the flamer CSM took out 7 sisters with their flamers before the demons charged ... though the CSM were in turn burnt to a single marine (who lived on at game end!) by 1 sister squad + the dominions with stormbolters. Also a nice touch was the oblit (who would crump the engine) tagging the exorcist across the board, through extreme cover, and one-shoting it turn 2. Nice job robot.

So beyond the mayhem of the crowded SW corner of the board, the NE corner saw the dreadtasm facing off against a rhino sister squad and the exorcist cannoness. Overall the dreads behaved fairly well, with 1 first turn fire frenzy shaking a dread and a blood rage later on being simply redundant (the dread was 2" from the sisters cowering in their rhino's crater). And then a humorous fire frenzy late game, when the two surviving dreads - both now missing their combat weapons and immobilized - having (literally in the end!) stomped a rhino, 10 sisters (1 with eviscerator) and the eviscerator canny into pulp, then flipped out and tried shooting each other point blanc. My trend of HUGE scatters continued though, and no more inter-dread violence occurred. (The other dread, by the by, was easily dispatched by the 2+ inv saving mantle clad canny earlier).

Anyway it came down to a

CHAOS WIN

with the primary and secondary, and I suppose an extra BP or two. Good game that really wasn't looking my way during the first few turns, but started to crumble as my dice heated up and his amazing rolls started to fade.

This week I'm playing some fantasy with my new warriors of tzeentch army, though there might be a 1500 pointer 40k match beforehand if I can get things moving early enough. Stay tuned.

Painting: N/A
Building: N/A
Priming: Warriors of Tzeentch!

+ DREADTASM ROLLS ON: CHAOS VS SISTERS +

As mentioned in the previous post, the on-going conflict with the Witch Hunters continued yesterday, with another 1850 battle. This time we started working through the missions for Da Boyz GT over in Rochester, NY in mid-October, rolling up the "Escort the VIP" mission. Essentially, we each had an extra VIP model (T3, W2, 4+ inv) that had to be attached to a squad (which became Fearless) and walked off the enemy table edge, taking his escort with him.

Anarchonquistadores vs Sisters [1850]

I used the same dreadtasm + deathscreamer list from last time, he used a tweaked up version of his last list:

Cannoness - MC blessed weapon, book, auto-pass faith thing
Cannoness - eviscerator, jump pack, 2+ armor, mantle
5 Dominions - 5 storm bolters, priest; immolator w/ MM
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino
15 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator
7 Seraphim - 2x flamers, VSS w/ eviscerator
5 Seraphim - 2x inferno pistols, VSS w/ power weapon, melta bombs
Exorcist
Penitent
Penitent

Might have been another Sister rhino squad in there, but I think he had to drop it to buy more seraphim. Regardless the mission was looking bad for him, as his only options for moving the VIP up was to attach to the big foot squad (which he did, with Cannoness along too), dismount an embarked squad and walk it, or walk the seraphim (who wanted to strike as usual).

Deployment: Table edges
Primary: Escort VIP off the enemy's edge. If he dies, his body becomes an objective that if claimed counts the same as walking the VIP off.
Secondary: Have more units above 50% in the enemy deployment zone.
Tertiary: Have more scoring units within 3" of table center.

Bonus points for not putting the VIP in a transport, killing the enemy, walking off the table with your most expensive unit, etc. All pretty low compared to the primary.

Sisters win The Roll, give it to Chaos so they can go second at end of game.

Early Game
Deathscreamer stomps the yard with the shooty CSM squad, so that the VIP can ride with the flamey CSM in their rhino. They advance up the western flank, under cover of the noise marines, havoks and an obliterator, thoroughly discouraging the enemy from intercepting (a penitent rushes the rhino, doesn't kill it and is kraked for his troubles). 'Screamer, shooty CSM and melta CSM in their rhino push the center, removing the dominions and their ride turn one, the other penitent turn two (at the cost of the melta dudes' ride) and immobilizing both rhinos. Retaliation by the other two mounted sister squads is fierce, reducing the melta CSM to 2 models (AC + melta), but the arrival of the demons adds even more pressure against the middile.

Dreadtasm got off to a fine start, rolling 2 fire frenzies and unloading 4 plasma blasts into the lone sane dread, who popped smoke and survived the lovefest with just a shaken result. They would remain mostly sane for the rest of the game, with no more fire frenzies rolled ..

Mid-Game
The flamer CSM's cruise up the flank was interrupted by the inferno seraphim, who wrecked the rhino but would be clubbed to death the following turn, putting the VIP and friends within easy reach of the board edge. The deathscreamer and his squad assaulted the remains of the foot cannoness' crew with VIP (they had taken a brutal blastmaster shot turn 1, losing 7 girls), and over a few rounds of burning faith chaos came out on top, leaving the deathscreamer (1 wound taken from his own weapon), the autocannon and the power weapon AC to take up firing positions amidst the corpses.

With furious rolling the demons repeatedly broke one sisters squad, eventually wiping it out (leaving 4 demons, not enough to occupy his edge but enough to grab the center), whilst a blood raging dreadnought + the remnants of the melta CSM broke the other 10 woman squad (losing the dreadnought very easily to the eviscerator), but failed to catch it. The other dreads contented themselves with throwing out the odd plasma template between assaults, which was all the one immobilized by the exorcist could do. Also at this point the exy had pasted the obliterator whose lascannon couldn't hit or pen it all game.

Late Game
The other seraphim finally showed and attempted a daring table edge drop to stop the flamer CSM, but a mishap allowed the forces of chaos to misdirect the angelic flyers. They were plopped down amidst the fire lanes of the noise marines / havoks / obliterator, and despite SotM being as irritating as possible the squad was hammered down to 1 girl, who fled and would be tagged by the autocannon marine. The eviscerator cannoness struck solo, absorbed a turn of aggressive fire with 2 wounds (2+ inv is DRUNK) slaughtered the havoks and ran them down, charged a dread and copped a giant chainsaw to the chest.

With little in the way of opposition left, the flamer CSM walked their charge off the table, the melta CSM legged it when the lone eviscerator VSS shot the AC in the head, the demons stabbed that VSS to death and would end the game happily frolicking on the center of the table. End game saw only 1 immobilized rhino and the untouched exorcist vs a good number of angry chaos boys (and 1.5 dreads).

CHAOS WIN: Primary, Tertiary, Random Bonuses

A sterling performance by the deathscreamer, with a good selection of rolls (just 1x 1, but 2x 6 and several 3-4), which is quite nice vs T3 power armored opponents (SotM or not). The dreadtasm had it's usual idiotic start, but besides the double blood rage turn (the immobilized dread wasn't angry enough to overcome his shattered legs) were remarkably behaved. As to what they actually did in the game, I suppose it was far less than 360 points worth, and I realized this game that the way I run them so close to each other makes it somewhat easier to limit their damage from fire frenzy (they just shoot the sane one, who can smoke) but also means they hardly move at all, not being able to consistently either march and fire or run up in a pack. Meh, I still like the lugs, and what would I take otherwise? Well, 1 unit of termiciders, and probably my possessed ;D Another excellent elites choice!

Painting: Irongut
Building: N/A

+ SEVERUS GAAL 2.0 +

Finally found the time to bash together the powerfist version of my chaos lord, Severus Gaal:



Not a super crazy conversion (Huron + chaos lord head - iron halo on power axe), but I really like the Huron sculpt, with its "shattered soldier" bionic deal and the badass "stride forward and demand my money, ho!" pose. I'm torn on what backpack to give him when I get to that point, cause I don't think it will be Huron's. I like the huge iron halo (good for the 4+ MoT inv), but I dislike how giant the pack is, and the height clashes with the horns of the headswap. I may simply use a CSM backpack, though maybe chop the stalks off to create a faux-RT era pack ...

Here Gaal 2.0 is next to the increasingly infamous deathscreamer lord:



And some more shots of Mr. Minigun:





I do love the hell out of this model, and I like the concept of the demon weapon in more mundane form, as minigun + power axe + some insane(ly masochistic) combat skills. This model is also my fastest turn around from idea to build to paint to table, taking I think 2 days from inception to battle. Makes me even more proud of how he turned out.

Funny thing, had another game against the Sisters today, and the deathscreamer seemed to sense his possibly imminent replacement - he rolled just one 1 for number of attaks (and wounded himself), but otherwise was hammering 4-6 shots at range and 5-9 attaks in combat. Nicely done Gaal, maybe you can hang around ... until 2.0 gets painted!

Speaking of painting things for this army, here's a quick snap of the last thing I painted for the boys, for Games Day Baltimore back in the summer:



Kringa, the Greater Demon! The idea of that beasty climbing out of a chaos champ's chest is pretty excellent :D

Painting: Irongut
Building: N/A

+ EMP'S KIDS SCOUT TITAN +

Viscount Vash over on the Emperor's Children forum blew my mind earlier today with his 40k-scale Questor Scout Titan. Here's some shots of where the titan was at of May 26:






Hopefully he had a chance to finish and/or paint the big guy up! Check out the rest of the thread for the buildup, the way he sculpted the thing is IMO pretty intense.

Painting: Irongut
Building: Powerfist Lord

+ CHAOS & MORE CHAOS: TRIPLE BATREPS +

Two more weeks means three more slaughterfests! Because last week's is getting fuzzy - and grad school means I've in fact got papers to grade - we'll be making these shorter and more brutal than usual ...

Anarchonquistadores vs Sisters [1850]

Chaos Space Marines
Lord - MoT, deathscreamer, melta bombs
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
10 CSM - IoCU, 2 meltaguns, AC w/ powerfist; rhino w/ extra armor
9 CSM - IoCU, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer; rhino w/ extra armor
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
6 Noise Marines - blastmaster, icon
10 Demons
6 Havoks - IoCU, 3 missile launchers
Oblit
Oblit

Witch Hunters
Cannoness - MC blessed weapon, 2+ armor, 4+ inv, book of stubborn, paper of auto-pass faith
Cannoness - eviscerator, jump pack, mantle
8 Celestians - meltagun, heavy flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
5 Dominions - 4 flamers, VSS w/ brazier; priest w/ brazier; immolator w/ MM + smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
15 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS
7? Seraphim - inferno pistol, hand-flamer, VSS w/ power weapon
Exorcist
Penitent
Penitent

Game: KP, Dawn of War

Highlights:
- Chaos steals initiative! And takes it (to get around first turn of night fight whilst heavy guns get in place)!
- All sisters save the exorcist are beaten to a pulp, through combination of CSM rampage + demon slaps.

Lowlights:
- Shooty CSM not deploying on the board in woodland cover, and spending 2 turns running back to where they should have been.
- All chaos firebase deploying in one corner, and completely running out of targets by turn 3/4.
- Deathscreamer rolling a 1 (no wound) for its first volley, another 1 in combat (wound), a 2 in combat, then a 6 in turn 6 to vaporize the last sisters squad, when a half dozen units were ready to assault them anyway.
- Seraphim + eviscerator canny absorbing an ENORMOUS amount of firepower before the blastmaster levels the squad, leaving the eviscerator to be finally punked by the deathscreamer.
- Dreadtasm (all 3 dreads marauding in posse) shenanigans: first turn, reserve on and keep it together; second turn, 2 fire frenzies & 1 sanity, resulting in 4 dead sisters from 1 plasma, a shaken dread with a trashed plasma from 2 PENETRATING plasma shots from his buddy, and another shaken dread from another sterling plasma pen. From here the dreads kept it in their pants more or less, with 1 patrolling the backfield, 1 dying to exorcist, and another ripping apart a pentitent, an immolator, and a sister squad before sheltering behind the immo hulk from the exorcist's rockets. He was, of course, the dread who double-penned the sane dread earlier ;D

CHAOS WIN

A fun game for sure, where victory was never assured, but the sisters lack of combat teeth meant that while he could button up and ride out my AP3 and power weapons with SotM, eventually he was losing the stat game and raw attaks were beating him apart. He's since upped all his VSS to eviscerators, which makes none of those squads quite the easy KP they used to be.

Also, while the dreadtasm I just have to distance myself from and learn to laugh a bit, the deathscreamer, particularly if I'm wanting to run him in a rhino instead of providing fire support, really is irking me. Great model + versatility means he's not leaving soon, but I have been doing a lot of thinking about alternative models. I really like the Huron model, and powerfist leaders seem to be a doable thing, so I was thinking about something like:

Chaos Lord - MoT, powerfist, combi-flamer/melta

Some possibility there, and cheaper than the deathscreamer currently - also, been thinking about counts-as-ing Huron himself, but while he does have 2 things I love (warptime + heavy flamer), I really want the 4+ inv and don't think he's totally worth dropping 20 points from somewhere in the list.

But back to the carnage! Now with 300% more demons!

Khorne Demons vs Sisters [1500]

Khorne
Skarbrand
Gorefiend - unholy might
16 Bloodletters - icon, render
16 Bloodletters - icon, render
8 Bloodletters
8 Bloodletters
Demon Prince - breath of chaos, unholy might, iron hide
Demon Prince - breath of chaos, unholy might, iron hide

Nuns
Cannoness - eviscerator, jump pack, stubborn book, autopass faith paper
10 Celestians - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator
5 Dominions - 4 stormbolters, VSS w/ stormbolter; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator
8 Seraphim - hand-flamers, inferno pistols, VSS w/ eviscerator?
Exorcist

Game: 2 objectives, table quarters

Khorne's back for some rompin' & stompin', and the girls got in the way ... I feel like mech sisters are the perfect anti-demons (especially khorne demons) army, so this was gonna be a dicey affair ...

Turn 1
Khorne wins The Roll and makes the sisters go first, and so they faff about and wait for the demons to show up, whilst the seraphim chill in low orbit.

The chaos gods agree with my decision and send down the first wave: both big 'letter squads, a wee eighter squad and the gorefiend. Scatters are minimal, and the big 'letter blobs try to keep close to the sister's corner without drawing the fire of every sister next turn (just most of them). The fiend scatters unfortunately closer to the girls, right in the path of the exorcist, and the eighter plops down near my own objective in the opposite corner.

Turn 2
Girls start brutalizing them some demons, vapping the fiend with rockets and cooking the closest big squad down to 7 or so. The dominions tanked toward the khorne objective, and got some help when the seraphim + canny dropped back there and killed 4 of 8 bloodletters. With no backup really intended to save those 'letters I mostly complained about SotM and invincible seraphim ...

Skarbrand didn't feel like playing, though a demon prince and 8 more bloodletters did, crawling out of the blood-soaked ground near the closest icon to the sisters. The prince yelled at the foot sisters squad, exploding 5 heads and sending them fleeing (but not quite to the edge), whilst the 7-of-16 bloodletters charged the rhino that slewed to a halt in front of them (cooking them with flamer fire in the process). With all those attaks they could only manage to shake it. The 4 letters by the khorne objective charged the seraphim with no high hopes, but despite SotM loads of sisters died for 1 dead demon, leading to a failed -3 break test and a caught seraphim + canny squad! Result!

Turn 3
Fleeing girls rallied, girls in the shaken rhino hoped out and completely wiped the fresh 8-demon squad (heavy flamers bad!), a few bloodletters died from the other big squad, the DP took two wounds from the exorcist, and the dominions dismounted and started hammering the last 3 bloodletters on the khorne objective, killing 1.

Skarry B continued to forsake joining the battle, though the other prince joined his twin brother, dropping with a nice line to yell at the sisters who trashed the 8-demon squad last turn. Which he did, but only popped one. They were charged by the 7 demons from the original big squad, only to lock them down for minimal loses due to SotM love. The wounded DP yelled at the exorcist and blew its tracks off, then charged in and detonated it, with no wound caused to him or his brother. The other big bloodletter squad, still at 11 strong, charged the last loaded rhino and exploded it, killing a girl in the inferno for no demonic loss - AND pinning the squad in the burning crater. The 2 'letters down by the other objective cowered inside the building sheltering the objective ...

Turn 4
The girls were running low, and the greater demon had yet to show up ... The rallied squad from earlier advanced on the wounded DP but couldn't wound it, whilst the celestians continued raining fire down from their perch in a building near the objective, this time wounding the other DP once. The Dominions succeeded in dropping another bloodletter, while their rhino slammed through both walls of the infested building (because it could). Combat continued to lock the demons down, with some bloodletters dying from the larger squad and the other squad gutted entirely, leaving 4 girls free near the objective (and an angry DP).

Skarmaster continued to be a tool and not come play, as the number of models who could benefit from his reroll dwindled ... The DP with 2 wounds piled on the previously rallied squad (after yelling at 1-2 of them), managing to take a wound but not get through the SotM invulns. His brother climbed into the celestians' building and screamed 7 of them to puddles, then assaulted the other 3 and was locked down similarly. And the other bloodletter squad continued to smack the girls, with little result (but not too many dead demons).

Turn 5
- RECAP -
Objective 1: 1 bloodletter vs 5 dominions + 1 rhino
Objective 2: 2 bloodletters (fighting) + 1 DP (fighting nearby) + 1 DP (fighting farther away) vs few girls (fighting) + few more girls (fighting) few celestians (fighting) + 4 girls + 1 rhino

THIS COULD BE IT! So the girls continue along, with only the dominions being able to move, looking into the building's windows to bring the last bloodletter into their sights - they miss / fail to wound / hit the building. With faith severely drained, SotM only goes up on one of the DP fights, leaving the one sisters to die by bloodletter (leaving 2 free) and the other to be smacked by the other DP (leaving the eviscerator). The other DP can't quite stuff the celestians with their inv save.

With no choice, Skarbrand finally appears, off the icon held by 1 of only 3 remaining 'letters on the board. He yells at the 4 sisters sitting on their objective, rupturing 2 of their skulls, but they easily pass their break test. With faith running low, the demon princes are largely free to finish of the nuns and then stomp on their corpses out of sheer spite. And then the last bloodletter down on the khorne objective pounds through the objective 1 building and slams into the dominions, killed 2, taking no wounds back, breaking and catching them! Delicious.

Turn 6
The battle continues! Two sisters + 1 rhino hold the WH objective and a rhino contests the CD one, and after shooting the final bloodletter the rhino triumphantly does wheelies with that objective secure. The last two sisters shoot and assault the final two bloodletters, easily dispatching them and denying the demons any ability to score.

Skarbrand however is unimpressed and orders his demon princes to yell at the women, and the insolent whelps crumple unconscious.

DRAW

100% happy with a draw vs mech sisters, and it was a fun game to be sure. Khorne demons kind of drive me mad with how slow they are, but when you drop all up in the other dude's junk (o_O) I guess that's in fact kinda speedy. Skarry not showing until he had no choice was kinda irksome, and ultimately his rerolls mostly helped the eviscerator chicks hit the DPs more (hitting on 5+ vs WS7). Epic lumberjack action by that bloodletter vs dominions though, high five to that goaty demon.

Khorne Demons vs Tau [1500]

Tau
Shas'el - missiles, plasma, shield, multi, target, 2 shield drones
3 Crisis - twin missiles, target, 2 marker drones
12 Fire Warriors - uberwarfish (SMS, etc)
12 Fire Warriors - uberwarfish (SMS, etc)
Hammerhead - uber (SMS, etc)
Hammerhead - uber (SMS, etc)

Game: 2 objectives, pitched battle

Mech tau then? Yowza ... This could be very bad, with all those fast tanks loaded with a lot of high rate of fire or template guns. Ah well, don't think I've ever faced tau with kr0n, so here goes ...

Unit Breakdown:

Skarbrand - showed up turn 2 as planned, distributed rerolls like a champ, bellowed a fire warrior unit off the table (killed 3, they failed break and ran like fishmen), ran down the table and gutted the crisis team in one go, ran back the other way and tore the shas'el a new one, caught a railgun slug with his 4+ inv but then copped 2 wounds off 2 SMS wounds
Gorefiend - dropped with the first wave, absorbed an epic amount of firepower with his 5+ ward (seriously, so many 5's and 6's), lasered in and assaulted the crisis team before Skarry could get to them and killed 1 suit + 1 drone before being clubbed to death (should have gone for a hammerhead and trusted in Skarry's reroll power to hit it)
16 Bloodletters - dropped first wave, absorbed a DRUNK amount of fire (including 24 fire warriors) whilst keeping the icon waving for the big guys in coming turns, evaporated the other fire warrior squad in vengeance and would die when assaulting the shas'el after being reduced to just 3 models (hey, they killed his drones!)
16 Bloodletters - scattered on top of a hammerhead in the first wave and died :'(
8 Bloodletters - dropped first wave on the chaos objective, and spent 6 turns kissing the dirt and enjoying a 3+ cover save against the attention of the tau grav tanks, but holding it in the end
8 Bloodletters - kindly dropped turn 2 and shook a warfish before cowering on the tau objective for several turns, eventually holding it with 2 bloodletters
Demon Prince - dropped turn 3, chased devilfish around and succeeded in wrecking one by yelling it's engines off (immobilized) and eventually catching and destroying the other with its ten foot long brass sword
Demon Prince - dropped turn 4 with mostly just vehicles left, so followed Skarry around and managed to yell 1 wound off the shas'el before S-Brand tore its face off

CHAOS WIN

I was seriously worried about the battle, but the pressure I exerted so early in the game made him pop his fish-o-fury too soon, leaving his troops very vulnerable to a horrific death. Khorne obliged, and from that point it was a question of him trying to wipe bloodletters out and force a draw, while Skarbrand and his noisy friends chased them around. Frankly he might have tried to power some tanks in and contest an objective in Turn 5 or 6 and chance a draw that way, though I guess I did have a lot of MC waiting for him around the objectives. Entertaining game though, enjoyed.

Painting: Ogre Irongut
Building: N/A

+ CSM VS SISTERS: FIRE BAD! +

School's back in session, but that just made the wait for my last game all the longer ... Threwdown against my friend's fledgling Sisters army, which is so WIP that he had to proxy two rhinos with cardboard squares. It would be his very first outing with C:WH, and maybe his 3rd game of 5th edition.

Anarchonquistadores vs Sisters [1000]

I brought along an entirely undivided bunch of maniacs -

Sorcerer - MoCU, warptime, doombolt, familiar, melta bombs
10 CSM - IoCU, 2 meltaguns, AC w/ powerfist; rhino
9 CSM - IoCU, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer; rhino
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
Oblit
Oblit

- and he met me with more rhinos and power armor:

Cannoness - blessed weapon, artificer armor, rosarius, auto-pass-faith book
Priest - flamer, power armor
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino
9 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino
9 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino
5 Seraphim - melta-pistols, hand-flamers, VSS w/ power weapon
Penitent Engine

Game came up a pitched battle capture and control, and he won The Roll and took it. I was looking at a rhino (sisters + priest) & penitent making a run for the objective near my zone, the other two rhinos prepping to take 'his' objective, and the seraphim in orbit. In response I deployed oblits to the left and right, the shooty CSM center and near 'my' objective, and both rhinos revving their engines to intercept the Inquisition rhinos on the right. The sorcerer joined up with the flamey CSM, pimp hat and all.

Sisters 1
The penitent raced forward 16" or so (rage + move + run), while the left rhino moved forward 12" in support and the right rhinos advanced more cautiously, keeping their own objective nearby. It was here that I was reminded of how awkward not automatically having smoke on rhinos is, and since he didn't spring the 3 points he couldn't pop any ...

Chaos 1
As obliterators shuffled around to draw beads on transports, the two spiky rhinos slammed forward 12" and discharged their own smoke launchers. The shooty marines locked, loaded and managed to stun the penitent (which it ignores), though the oblit came through and wrecked it with a lascannon beam. The other oblit however failed to pen the rightmost rhino with his own laser cannon.

Sisters 2
Playing a cagier game than the eevil marines, the Imperial rhinos responded to chaos' show of force - the left rhino advanced and put the penitent's smoking corpse between itself and the shooty marines, and the right rhinos moved 6" or less to park in front of their objective, while allowing the specialists within to fire. And melta they did, stunning the sorcerer's ride (smoke fail) but being unable to hurt the chopped-top rhino (smoke win). This turn the seraphim arrived as well, striking behind chaos lines and unloading on the right obliterator - but a shakey 5+ inv later and the melta-pistol was shrugged off.

Chaos 2
Time for killing things! All marines disembarked their transports and moved up to the two right rhinos, and the sorcerer started out strong by rolling an 11 to cast warptime for melta bomb fun later ... But shooting first: the left oblit las'd the left rhino, immobilizing it, which left the shooty marines to happily turn in place and shower the seraphim with lead, killing 2, which the oblit brought to 4 with twin-linked plasma fire, leaving just the VSS. The melta CSM failed to hit the rhino right in front of them, which meant they'd have to make things personal ...

The Huntsman was happy to oblidge and smashed his love-glove through the rhino, detonating the Sisters' sacred stock of hairspray and showering ALL the rhino-borne marines in fire - an amazing four hardened killers would succumb to the flames!! Dirge repeated the show in his squad's assault on the other rhino, wrecking the vehicle and disgorging the Sisters within. The oblit had less luck with the seraphim VSS, who popped faith, wounded the oblit (!) and coasted through his fumblings with her 3+ inv save.

Sisters 3
Retaliate! The Sisters from the wrecked rhinos readied flamers and pistols to blaze into assault, but first the sorcerer did his warptime dance ... and rolled a 12, wounding himself (and I learned how nasty PotW is, having to reroll my successful 5+ save :P). Unphased the chicks cooked a few marines and charged in - cannoness & friends into sorcerer & flamey marines, other sister squad into melta marines.

Before fighting ensued, two sisters from the squad hanging out in their broken rhino took pot shots at the left oblit, combining with the stormbolter to put 3 wounds on the beast. Thankfully a 2-2-2 to save kept him from an embarrassing end.

Fighting, and a lot of faith, finally went down. The seraphim kept up her 3+ inv save jig, drawing combat vs the oblit. The unassisted sister squad was beaten up by the melta marines, broke and the VSS / melta / flamer were sent running. The cannoness & crew popped +2I, but thanks to the sorcerer distracting the cannoness (5+ saved the only wound through) and the CSM shattering haughty cheekbone the girls lost by 3, only to hold on 7.

Chaos 3
With targets few and mostly locked in combat, the chaos boys got right to business, starting with the sorcerer casting warptime (!!) for once. The left oblit tagged the immobilized rhino and zaped off its stormbolter, and the melta marines (6 left now) and both rhinos hammered the fleeing sister squad, who had popped SotM in fear of the meltaguns. The flamer chick dropped, then the other two were pulped when the melta marines charged in shortly after.

In sadder combat news, the oblit was killed by the (still inv) VSS, freeing her to do irritating things. The sorcerer was stuck fighting the cannoness, who's 4+ skills absorbed his force weapon attaks, and the combat was looking bad for chaos - Big Sister chopped down 2 marines and her underlings accounted for another, with chaos scoring a big 0 from sorcerer and normal marines. Thankfully Dirge stepped up his game and fisted 2 sisters into submission, making the -1 break test easily passed.

Sisters 4
Time, and options, were growing short for the chicks. The priest-led girls finally left their rhino and moved for the chaos objective, dropping a CSM from the shooty marine squad with a single rapid fired bolter. The seraphim VSS hopped behind the shooty marines, aiming to get in the way and possibly contest the objective in Turn 5.

Combat drug on with the invinco-cannoness, who popped SotM for the hell of it, easily absorbing the sorcerer's attaks - who, it should be noted, rolled a 2 for his warptime this turn, wounding himself again. Wow. Despite this incompetence, Big C's squad all but vanished, leaving just the cannoness against the sorcerer, the fister and two spiky marines.

Chaos 4
Sisters needed to die, so the forces of chaos mobilized a bit to make that happen. The shooty marines scooted up and rapid fired into the ex-rhino sisters, killing 3-4 girls and wounding the priest, while the remaining oblit rapid-fired plasma into the VSS that had killed his new friend. Alas SotM once again saved her supple buttocks from certain death and defilement.

In combat the chaos gangbang resulted in a flamer marine eating blessed weapon and the cannoness' 2+ inv save keeping up with the flurry of attaks, except for 1 slap from Dirge which crushed her irritating skull. What was left of the squad booked it 6" through central ruins to get at the remaining squad of girls.

Sisters 5
One objective firmly in chaos' talons meant the jig was all but up, but the Imperium might at least annoy the spooky marines a bit yet. The last sister squad popped Divine Guidance and bathed the shooty marines in 10 hits of flamer ... 5 wounds but 0 6's meant the dice were in my hands now, and 2-2-1-2-1 meant half the squad was dead! The panic test was easily passed, but the odds for the coming assault had been evened up some. However The Reaver showed how it's done and killed 3 chicks with his 3 power weapon attaks, which combined with solid armor saves from the other marines meant the girls had lost by 3 - they broke and were caught.

The seraphim meanwhile suicide charged into the sorcerer to try to tag off his last wound, but he lashed out with his power staff and caved her 3+ inv save skull in. This after rolling another 11 to cast warptime.

The Witch Hunters called it at this, as only an immobilized, weaponless rhino was left on the field.

CHAOS WIN

Post Game Thoughts:

• The sorcerer was ridiculous, managing to fail to cast warptime twice, get PotW twice, and successfully cast only once. Easily worse than the deathscreamer, who vs sisters is pretty good (S4 is only so-so against the world of T4) barring 1's. Eh, I suppose if I run any HQ that can hurt itself, it will. I still like what warptime does for my bad-dice problems, if I can ever get it off!


• I appreciate the free smoke launchers / grenades a little more after fighting somebody who has to pay for all these little extras, or more so doesn't pay for them and suffers a bit for it. Makes your troopers seem more properly equipped, while making your points go further and be less odd-number-y.


• My friend asked what he could have done differently, and I'm frankly not sure. Maybe been more aggressive with the rhinos? But he was trying to cover his own objective too ... I clearly had him out-gunned as far as ranged AT goes, but he might have come off better had he swapped his two wings, sending the two rhinos full out for my objective and leaving the other sisters to hold his, with the penitent as counter-assault or along with the two rhino wing as distraction / support.


• My new big, square, translucent green dice make me happy. They aren't totally amazing, and there were a couple BAD rolls (the 5/5 armor fail one!), but they're either somewhat hot overall (hence sorcerer rolling HIGH on his tests no doubt) or I was getting the feeling that the luck was more even, rather than being a suckfest through all the phases.

Somewhat of a random aside, but there was also a newbie kid there with his chaos, running an interesting (if model-dictated) list, including 5 possessed and something like 6-7 spawn. He was basically playing his first game of 40k, and I so wanted to help the little blighter out, with a little list tweakage and in-game guidance. Maybe next time I'll be able to show him the ropes, though I did encourage him to keep the painting up and not jump armies quite yet ...

Painting: Sorcerer
Building: Pyre Troll

+ Bring on the 1000 Pointers +

A bunch of the (fantasy) dudes I play with are looking to mess around with 40k again, and have around 1000 points available, painted, etc. Once upon a time I was a real proponent of 1000 pointers, as you could both try new things out but also have more tactical games on a larger board, AND get more of them in in less time. However my chaos boys have been cooking along at such high points (1500-APOC) that I haven't actually made a 1k list to cruise along with ...

HQ
Chaos Sorcerer - MoCU, warptime, melta bombs

ELITES
3 Terminators - IoCU, 3 combi-plasma, 2 powerfists, chainfist

TROOPS
10 CSM - IoCU, 2 meltaguns, AC w/ powerfist; rhino
9 CSM - IoCU, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer; rhino
6 Demons

HEAVY SUPPORT
Obliterator
Obliterator

TOTAL
998 / 9 KP

My first list, using the new stuff I'm adding to the army - 2nd oblit, melta marines, rhino transports. The sorcerer I've been meaning to try for a long long time and have a model ready, though I've been rocking the deathscreamer for so long I never got around to it. I like how cheap he is, and warptime might get around my total inability to roll dice - as well as my propensity to roll 1's with the 'screamer.

Part of me wonders if the list is too high powered though, with so much plasma and powerfists everywhere. I could swap out the termiciders & 1 demon for my standard noise marine squad (6 w/ blastmaster, icon), giving me a troop choice actually intended to hang back on my own objectives and provide fire support. The BM I don't trust to hurt tanks, but it does make a mess of things with bases. Hmm ...

Edit: It doesn't matter to how I make lists, but I'll note that most of the guys here play Guard. No surprise I suppose, though in my experience my termies kinda scrath their heads when it comes to things worth plasma-ing. They cleaned up in assault last Guard game though, which was groovtastic, and the ability to strike wherever has always been invaluable.

Painting: Chaos Sorcerer?
Building: Pyre Troll [Gorger]

+ REDUX: WIP II +

Here we go!



RIOT, having been captured and re-fabricated no less than four times, houses a paranoid but suitably homicidal machine-daemon ...



VOXX stands tall after the acid bath used to scour off the caked gore and fuchsia heraldry of his service with the Emperor's Children. Time will tell if the incipient insanity of the other Anarcho dreadnoughts infests the newest murder machine.




GurG joins Cithorax in bringing ranged death to enemy armor, and the triple-melta shown manifested here certainly looks promising. [Unfortunately I got the angle of the arm wrong when puttying it in place, so if he's indeed killing tanks they're standing about ten feet away ...]



The enigmatic aspiring champion Huntsman is joined by Seven, one of the original Iron Hydras upon which the Anarchonquistadores were built. Huntsman served in The Reaver's brief-lived mutant uprising, while Seven had previously been assigned to havok bullet-soak duty before the squad was trimmed down due to budget cuts.



Heinrich and Wilhelm, the squad meltagunnners, appear courtesy of the Iron Warriors, though little else is known about the Germanic tank killers.



Din and Fader bring the heat with dual-wielded boltguns - note the internal magazines and lack of suppressors on Fader's customized sidearms. With their reduced weight and length the chaos marine is able to wield them in combat to great effect, removing limbs at point-blank range.



Tex has recently had his stalwart service rewarded with a demonic bone overgrowth on his power armor's torso, while Sinne enjoys a brutal clawed gauntlet for his battlefield atrocities. Sinne also carries a captured greenskin shoota that fits him perfectly - loud, obnoxious and undisciplined.



Killer Bunny and Gläd, the third of the fallen wolves, make up Huntsman's combat specialists. Rumor has it that Bunny hasn't fired his boltgun in the last half dozen conflicts, preferring to bludgeon his enemies to death or fall back to his trusty knife when things get serious. While he lacks Bunny's ferocity, Gläd's raw skill and relentlessness make him an equal threat at close quarters, amputated arm or not.



The boys spill out of their ride and deliver hell, while VOXX provides covering fire. GurG has apparently already succumbed to return lascannon fire at this point.

Painting: Ogre Maneaters
Building: CSM backpacks

+ REDUX: WIP +

Snapped some quick-n-dirty webcam shots of what I've been working on yesterday and today ...


Rhino #2 - Years ago was built as a generic spiky chaos rhino, then had its top chopped to drive my GorkaMorka gang around in, then went back into storage to be resurrected yesterday. Robo-combi-bolter + smoke launchers + AL front plate I had lying around and voila! Sweet salvaged ride, indeed!


Oblit #2 - Bought this dude with his bro years back, but lingered until today. Originally he was slated to ride a "Throne of Obliteration" (counts as Silver Tower) for APOC games, but I'm happy to have him stomp the yard in more sane games. Loads of GS work goes down tonight, to integrate that triple-melta arm.




Dread #4 - Top pic shows what this Empy Kids dread looked like when I traded him off my brother for a leman russ executioner I had from an old army. Two soaks in the simple green hot tub and he was mostly clean, though some scrapping time and general clean up still had to happen before reassembling to the state in the middle pic. Note that the plasma cannon is stuck on there good, so I won't be able to paint it separately as I usually would. Bottom pic shows the rod spacer I'm trying to get to the right length to give the dread his waist back - he previously had a magnet in place of his waist joint, but I tore that off in favor of something more secure.

Looking forward to getting some GS onto that oblit arm, lots of gribble ahead of me tonight!

+ 1850 Anarcho Redux +

Well Internets, my 40k blood is up and it's feeling like time to revamp the Chaos boys at long last. Seeing as how I've never really played 1850 points but that's pretty standard fair, I figure that's a good level to shoot for.

HQ
Chaos Lord - MoT, deathscreamer, melta bombs

ELITES
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor

TROOPS
10 CSM - IoCU, 2 meltaguns, AC w/ powerfist; rhino w/ extra armor
9 CSM - IoCU, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer; rhino w/ extra armor
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
6 Noise Marines - blastmaster, icon
10 Demons

HEAVY SUPPORT
6 Havoks - IoCU, 3 missile launchers
Obliterator
Obliterator

TOTAL
1850 points / 14 KP

More Deathscreamer Nonsense
The demo-cannon is still around, despite the shenanigans of the last few games. Losing the 1k Sons means the S4 AP3 is especially delicious, and having a lord who can use his BS5 is pretty groovy, despite embarrassing jam rolls. The unfortunate thing about tossing the Sons means I've got some thinking about where the main man goes - most likely in the rhino with the 9 CSM, though he could sit with the noise boys or the shooty marines for pure fire support.

More Dreadtasmic
Yea for silly toys! Target saturation with the rhinos should help keep some alive though, and going with just plasma cannons keeps the cost down and keeps the heavy flamers away from cooking my boys. Hilarious ANGER! chart and all.

More Undivided
Bolter-bait 1k Sons finally get replaced by more renegades, with meltas as the metagame demands. Noisy boys back the CU lads up with their blastmaster (and because I like my models), though their icon is only there because one of the marines has one ... Rhinos finally make an appearance too, forcing me to paint a vehicle that isn't a walker :P Demons continue rocking out, though I'd like to run my new demon princess too. Points difference isn't much, but the girls are a bit more tactical and troops to boot.

More Obliteration
Havoks stick around, and a second oblit joins the fun to quasi-replace the lascannon marine that had to leave the fisty CSM squad to make room for the 'screamer lord. Side effect is bringing the number of plasma cannons in the list to a healthy 5!

Today I went bitz-diving and have some fun-filled conversions in the works. In all, this list means building / painting:

- 10 CSM
- 2 rhinos
- 1 dreadnought
- 1 obliterator

WIP pics coming?!

Painting: Ogre maneater
Building: Rhino 2

+ New Guard Grind +

Popped out to 40k night for another random game. Though things looked dead at first, I found another dude who had all but given up on getting a game that night ... My boys in black and brown were up against new guard, but a nice guy with a far from optimized list. Still a lot of guns though!

Anarchonquistadores vs Imperial Guard [1500] - I was definitely worried as IG have never been easy for my lads, as they always involve walking into all their guns. And in the new edition they have more of them, as well as loads of AV14 tanks my low-AT army can't handle. His list thankfully did turn out fairly soft:

Command HQ
3x lascannon squad
2x lascannon + missile launcher squad
3x mortar squad
3x autocannon squad
2x heavy bolter + autocannon squad
Platoon HQ - powerfist, boltpistol
10 guard - plasma
10 guard - melta
10 guard - flamer
Platoon HQ - power weapon, laspistol
10 guard - plasma
10 guard - melta
10 guard - flamer
Demolisher - lascannon + heavy bolters
Leman Russ - lascannon + heavy bolters
Basilisk

That sounds about right to me. I took my standard 1500 list (so the previous one but with havoks not the defiler - i.e. no vehicles).

Game turned out to be KP with table quarter deployment. CSM won the roll and took it, choosing a quarter with 2 low buildings + crater in it and giving the guard a two story building and a couple craters. Chaos deployment saw the havoks + oblit in the building farthest from the guard corner, with noise marines bunkered in the other building, shooty CSM in the crater 12" from the board center, 1k sons + lord to their left in the open and fisty CSM poised to push into the adjacent corner and move through the cover of a building to go deliver some demonic love.

Guard responded by blobbing up the platoons into two 30 man squads and pushing them as close to the 12" from-center mark as they could. Russ went west and demolisher north in support of the infantry, and all the AT weapon teams were north behind the demolisher. The anti-infantry fire teams went in the building, the mortars behind the building and the CHQ inside the building. PHQ squads stayed near their big blobbed up friends. Finally, basilisk hunched half behind the building, ready to go direct or indirect as needed.

Chaos 1

Feeling woefully under-gunned, the Anarcho crew took a deep breath and got to it. Fisty CSM move + run (3") west, 1k sons advance towards all those lasguns, and everybody else gets ready to dakka. 1k sons open up with their expensive AP3 guns on the north blob, resulting in a few dead guard - and the deathscreamer rolls a 1, but the wound is saved. The noise marines join in too, with the blastmaster splattering a number but failing to cause a pining check, and the break test is passed as well. The shooty CSM open up on the western blob, and with some solid firepower break the squad and it falls back behind the russ. The havoks and the oblit attempt to dent the russ but bounce off its armor.

KP 0-0

Guard 1

The western blob rallies, then uses the RUN! order to get in front of their tank again. With troublesome movement over, it was time to show those evil marines how shooting really works ... The north blob used LASGUN HELL! to wash the 1k sons with a drunk number of shots, which resulted in 6 wounds and 4 dead robots (yep, my dice-rolling skills in action). Happily the squad absorbed the other, clearly less deadly fire directed at it. The tanks (which scattered perhaps once all game) accounted for a dead fisty marine (4,1,1,1 to wound with the basi), a dead shooty marine or two (russ) and a couple dead noise marines (demo). AT fire was absorbed by cover or missed, AI fire couldn't find purchase against the power armor, though the mortars in fact killed 2 shooty marines! Pining and break tests were batted aside across the board.

KP 0-0

Chaos 2

No reserves wanted to play, which was fortunate as they didn't really have good icons or targets yet. The fisty CSM remedied that by powering 12" west and north into a ruined building, and the 1k son remnants (lord, sorcerer, robot) stumbled towards the north blob pretty certain they were dead meat. Unfortunately when it came to exact bloody revenge, the doombolt failed to wound, the robot killed a guardsman and the deathscreamer rolled a 1 (but no wound through). Blastmaster and shooty CSM smacked that blob all the same, accounting for some dead guard but no failed pining or break tests. Over in the heavy support bunker the oblit missed the russ, and the havoks opted for frag and brutalized the rallied guard blob. It passed its break this time though, which was nice as the fisty icon was just over that ruined wall ...

KP 0-0

Guard 2

An aggressive movement phase this time around, as the northern blob descended upon the 1k sons and the demo ground up onto the crater in front of it. Thanks to the FIRE A LOT! order the sorcerer turned to ash and the lord took 2 wounds, to be finished off by an autocannon in short order. The lone 1k robot battled on, absorbing an inordinate amount of fire and living to the next turn. Other fire knocked the fisty CSM down to 4 members (Mr. Fister, Las Man, Flamer Dude, 2x Chainsword Guy) and put the hurt on the shooty CSM squad in the crater (AC, autocannon, plasma, a grunt or two living on).

KP 0-1

Chaos 3

Friends in orbit leapt into the fight, with the termies hitting behind the russ but scattering up into the guard's building (no dangerous 1's) and the girls summoning off the fister and ready to molest guardsmen (two twisted their ankles on the rubble though). The only other movement involved the robot jerking 3" in a suicide drive for the blob that killed his father(s), rapid-firing two mammals down but with no chance to reach combat (7" away). The autocannon from the shooty CSM popped an autocannon from the triple auto squad (break passed), the blastmaster crunched yet more guard from the north blob (pin passed), and the havoks rained frag all over that squad as well (break passed), reducing it to 3 sargeants, 3 specialists and 2 lasguns. The fisty CSM also blasted the western blob to help the girls out, killing a couple with flamer fire. Finally, the termies rapid fired plasma into the basilisk's side, shaking it and melting the earthshaker.

With close combat arrived at last, the girls ripped into the guardsmen with abandon, their 30 attaks leaving just 3 humans alive. They broke and managed to escape (BALLS!), leaving the girls to stuff themselves up into the russ' face.

KP 1-1

Guard 3

Unable to rally, the western blob fragment (sarge, plasma, melta) fell back a short distance, tagging a chick on the way. The PHQ responded to the termies in their building by running away, and the russ turned to face the demons but in the process clipped a crater and immobilized itself. This didn't stop it from slamming a shell point blanc into the girls, and combined with various other fire reduced them to 6 gals. The fisty CSM were trashed by the AI fire teams, the shooty CSM all died save the autocannon man (who showed how power armor works and saved a LOT), and the robot gave up his KP when tagged by a burning flamer of hotness. The chainfist terminator also died, most likely to a las shot out of the wall of light + lead directed at him.

KP 1-3

Chaos 4

Things looked pretty dire for the spiky boys, but they still had heavy guns at range and terminators up in the enemy junks. Speaking of which, the terminators hopped off the building and prepared to crump the mortar team, shooting a team to death on the stomp in. The autocannon marine tagged another guard autocannon team - yay for instant deathing the new heavy weapon teams - and the blastmaster continued showing his skills by tagging the 2x las + ml squad and killing a launcher. The squad broke and ran off the table, ending the huge string of successful break tests. The havoks dropped the hammer on what was left of the northern blob, bashing it with frag. The oblit, meanwhile, missed the demolisher that had exposed its flank to his lascannon ...

The girls continued their reign of terror and assaulted the russ, 18 auto-hits becoming 2 glances that tore the battlecannon off and shook the tank. The termies were likewise successful, stomping the mortars into goo and moving toward the triple lascannon squad.

KP 4-3

Guard 4

The guard, unimpressed by the chaos troops ransacking their lines, prepared to bring yet more heat. The retreating blob remnant fell back 2", giving it time to pepper the demons yet again, which was dropped to 3 chicks with the help of the PHQ nearby. The autocannon man was finally taken down, and a single termi ate lascannon (his buddy could care less). The noise marines lost a member to the attention of the demolisher, but were hugging cover like pros. The basilisk also drove around a bit and targeted the termies with its heavy bolter, more to not be hit automatically in combat than hurt the beasts.

Still in combat with the russ, the girls tore off the heavy bolter facing them and shook it again.

KP 4-4

Chaos 5

With the store closing shortly, we decided this was going to be the last turn, so chaos would have to make it hurt. The guns were lackluster - oblit missed, blastmaster missed, frag-volley all scattered off the north PHQ - but the combat troops were on it. The last terminator powered into the lascannon teams, smashed one but they held. The three girls pounced the PHQ and killed it to a man with some fierce rolling (9 attaks -> 8 hits -> 7 wounds -> 5 failed 5+ saves), then hid behind the russ again.

KP 5-4

Guard 5

Very few targets were still available for the remaining guard weapons, and so really only the noise marines absorbed the demolisher again, leaving the blastmaster holding his squad's KP. In combat the termi pulped the two lascannon teams and secured the win.

KP 6-4

CHAOS WIN

Solid game, which I was sure I had lost before any dice were rolled - and it only got worse once I started failed armor saves! Those mega-blobs were brutal, but their clumped up nature meant that I shot more frags in this game than I may ever have before. Overall his morale rolls really saved his butt - I made him roll 3+ a turn, but he failed just the 2 all game. Props to those guardsmen, stout little bastards.

While I can't really say I'm enjoying playing 40k again, I'm definitely digging getting my CSM out of the case and onto the table. I really do love this army, for how not great it is in game. And since I'm hungering for 40k after this fantasy league lets up and I get my ogres painted, that might mean I revamp the chaos lads at long last. I'm thinking of working towards this 1500 point list:

Chaos Lord - MoT, deathscreamer
3 Terminators - IoCU, 3 combi-plasma, 2 powerfists, chainfist
10 CSM - IoCU, 2 meltaguns, AC w/ powerfist; rhino w/ extra armor
9 CSM - IoCU, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer; rhino w/ extra armor
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
12 Demons
6 Havoks - IoCU, 3 missile launchers
Oblit
Oblit

Yes yes, the deathscreamer is still there, despite being a jackass in my last ... well, most of my last games. But it's still an awesome thing, and can't be countered if it rolls over 1, and means my lord can do something in the shooting phase too. But mostly, getting some rides in there, and dumping the fire-magnet 1k sons and 160 point blastmaster for some more undivided marines. I look forward to bashing some more renegades together, great fun and I've got lots of old marine armies to dement!