Progress in December

I have really started to motor along with getting things done now!

The silos are now fully assembled, although my wife has disputed the "fully assembled" part of that and has confiscated them to fix some slapdash approaches in assembly. She also fixed the broken handwheel on the door, achieving her first thing to do! I abjectly failed to get some pictures of them in all their glory.

...

OK, I'm back. I've taken a photo!

Wife fixing some of my poor construction...

You've already seen the fiction from one of my two battles against Grey Knights - perhaps the other one will come soon!

A lot of this month I've been doing some painting on one of Sim's commissions - just getting the base coating done to save her time. I'm only really doing this on commissions for friends right now - I feel like people are not just paying for the paint job, but for the sheer awesomeness imparted by the miniatures being in the presence of my wife. I got a bunch done, but they aren't due for a while, so I've put them to one side once they began to get to me, and moved on to something else.

(This does, notably, indicate to me that I really shouldn't take up commission painting. The idea of an external deadline just takes all the joy out of it, when I'd far rather switch to another project when something starts to drag...)

So, this afternoon, having put away the other work, I hit my own stuff. The Vindicare has now had a lick of paint as I try out the method of painting black suggested in the Eavy Metal Masterclass. It's looking good so far!

I've also got a little progress on the Imperial Beastman:

Fur now washed....

You'll notice I've taken off his right arm for painting - that's now glued to a lollipop stick for ease of access. I also got all the bodies, heads and horns that I need for the two squads I'm planning on putting together. A Catachan Battleforce (for all the muscled arms you'd ever need) is now on my Christmas list...

The Collodi crew now have more paint on them. I realised when I got them out again that I'd been leaving far too much very dark purple on them which just looks black under most lights. I'm correcting that now and going a little faster and being a bit less precious over them. Hopefully this will pay off.

Collodi's hands are still separate. They stare at me, accusingly.

I've also started sorting out my Malifaux corpse markers, in the hope that they'll be a quick win that I can post some nice progress shots of shortly. Also, I need to learn water effects!

I plan on writing up the rest of the entries for the blog this year this evening, and set them to auto post. That should keep people interested and happy!

Also, I passed the 10,000 views marker!

Vast quantities of these views come from the two posts I put up about stuff I found out at Games Day. Still, I'm pretty happy people are reading what I'm writing.

I am hoping that "time spent with family" over Christmas where I won't be able to paint or model can be counteracted by the days I've taken off between Christmas and the New Year, so I won't lose too much progress.

An unfortunate incident (creative writing)

To: Segmentum Tempestus High Command
From: Captain Rafiq, Tallarn XVI
Date: 7852912.M41
Theatre: Laxus Sector
Planet: Lambum Obscurum

As per standing orders, I led a small force (platoon strength plus auxilia) into No Man's Land to seek out  enemy advance forces to engage and destroy. Whilst advancing through the eastern-most reaches of our designated patrol area, our forces sighted a number of unmarked units of tactical-dreadnought class infantry advancing on our units.

Upon receiving this report from our scouts, I ordered our troops to take up firing positions and alerted our air support units. Attempts at contact over authorised hailing frequencies failed, at which point I designated the units as renegade and viable targets.

My force then engaged and destroyed the enemy. There were no survivors. Enemy casualties consisted of over a dozen tactical-dreadnought class infantry and one dreadnought class support walker.

Of particular note is that one of the individuals seemed to show extreme resilience to injury. In particular, Sergeant James from the Tollo II Ratling auxilia placed a confirmed headshot with a needle rifle through the eyepiece of the individual in question, only for him to rise again after a short while. The individual was eventually neutralised by the survivors of 1st platoon bayoneting him repeatedly.

Notable casualties included Lieutenant Yusuf, who was killed by a bolt round as he exited his destroyed Chimera and Commissar Price, struck down in hand to hand combat.

The survivors of the conscript platoon performed admirably, withdrawing from untenable and needless positions before regrouping and returning to the fray more than once. I recommend they be permitted to replace casualties among the full members of the company elsewhere.

I have asked my adjutant to provide you with the usual list of rounds expended, necessary repairs and replacements.

The intent of the enemy force remains unknown.


To: Segmentum Tempestus High Command
From: Inquisitor Bernard
Date: 7855912.M41
Theatre: Laxus Sector
Planet: Lambum Obscurum
Security Grade Omega

Despite his innocent protestations, Captain Rafiq knew exactly what he was doing. My spies inform me that he purchased a map to a "valuable treasure". It appears that our colleagues in a specialist Chapter believed this relic to be incredibly dangerous and sought to recover it, treating others who had interest in it as potentially corrupted.

Justicar Thawn has reported (after he recovered from his injuries) that his Chapter failed to recover the relic, but it should also be noted that the Captain was most angry on his return, so it appears lost. Several scans of his quarters and interception of his private mail seems to confirm this. The Justicar was holding it at the point where he fell as the last Marine active on the field - but it was not found or recovered by either side.

This is a most vexing loss and one that concerns us for the future. The relic poses a potential danger for the future and I fully intend to take this out of our errant Captain's hide. He may be too politically powerful to punish directly, but I will be taking a leaf out of some of his superiors' book when it comes to inconveniently dangerous missions...

November in review (wherein a lot of lists happen)

November has gone pretty well!

Achievements:
- Assembled and Undercoated the Imperial Beastman kitbash
- Prepped and Undercoated my Wicked Dolls
- Prepped my Vindicare Assassin
- Assembled one Sarissa Silo
- Undercoated some cultists for one of Sim's commissions
- Prepped most of Becky's Herald (awaiting some help from Sim with some Green Stuff)
- Prepped & Undercoated the Disc for the Herald

Not done:
- Imperial Beastman isn't finished
- Collodi isn't assembled
- 3 other Silos are not assembled
- Didn't do anything with my Skaven

Reprieve given:
Sim had asked me to prep and assemble some Sanguinary Guard and Kabalite Warriors, but she's now farming that out, so I don't have that on the "to do" list any more.

I've also got a ton of games in;

• 1 game against Space Wolves
• 2 games against Grey Knights (I even got mentioned in someone else's blog post)
• 1 Apocalypse Game

Picture totally stolen from ClauseIV1918

So, that comes to this month...

The wife has asked me to give her a "to do" list an itemised order. Where better to do it than on my blog?

1. Fix the handwheel for the silo door I've already broken!
2. Green Stuff Becky's Herald so I can undercoat it
3. Fix the Valkyrie Door
4. Magnetise the Valkyrie Weapons Options (I need to check if I should paint the other ones first)
5. Fix the Basilisk so it doesn't look terrible any more
6. Fix the Ogryn banner
7. Fix the Ogryn bayonet
8. Help with the Techpriest Assembly
9. There's probably some more but that's all I can remember for now

(Hello love - just the first two this month is all I really need doing quickly!)

I did find a little this month that by setting myself a high set of targets, if I got demotivated with them, I didn't want to do other things because they weren't contributing so much.

So, in an effort to try and be a bit more flexible, I'm going to try and do some of these goals;

• Finish Beastman kitbash so I can blog it
• Sort out another unit of Troops for my Guard?
• Assemble Collodi & progress the Malifaux crew painting
• Progress the Vindicare
• Prep the Salute Mayan for April
• Finish the assembling the other Silos
• Do something with my Skaven

I may also do other things instead, depending on how I'm feeling. Making a hobby a chore is a fast way to madness.

I also have some things I would also like to do for the blog;

• Write up the fiction for the two Grey Knights battles I had, and the Apocalypse Game
• Get some more games in
• Write a blog about all the Kickstarters & games that are looking shiny (such as Eden, Malifaux RPG, and Kingdom Death)
• Talk about other crazy future projects and ideas I have
• Write up the Beastman Kitbash
• Maybe throw out some army list ideas I've had

I also really need to take more pictures for the blog so you have more nice things to look at.

Some early lessons about Imperial Guard in 6th

So, I've now had a few games of 6th edition, and an apocalypse game, so I thought I'd take a moment to run through my general thoughts on what I've observed so far...

• 1000 points is very different to 1500 points! That should go without saying, but the balance of what you can take and what is worth taking is fundamentally very different, especially if you're dealing with a multiple objective mission.

• Feel No Pain (ie: Medi packs) is still a huge help in keeping squads alive, and the reduction to a 5+ doesn't hugely outweigh the reduction in what it protects against - although with T3 Guard, it's not super awesome.

• I'm yet to draw any useful conclusions on psykers yet.

• Ogryns can punch tanks to death. They also take a remarkable amount of fire compared to Guard infantry. Who knew?

• Ratlings are immensely useful and awesome.

• Storm Trooper deep striking has potential, but I need to get better at placing.

• I do not have enough Troops choices painted. When I put together 3,500 of Guard, with only two troop choices? Something is wrong. Troops need to move up my painting schedule!

• Don't leave space for Deep Strikes

• Demolitions Veterans remain awesome.

• Sentinels work better when you remember to take them out of the army carry case.

• Rough Riders are faster, have a greater threat range, but remain as fragile and short lived as ever. They are only as tough as infantry, and after the initial strike are very vulnerable.

• Fliers need some getting used to.

• I've not seen much benefit from anti infantry fliers so far - need to try out anti tank ones.

• I had failed to spot the rule about taking a dangerous terrain check when you jump out of a Valkyrie and scatter. It makes it riskier, but its still a hugely beneficial boost to movement.

• Hydras do not rock as hard as they used to.

• Leman Russ do die easier than before, but are still a pain to take down.

• Manticores need to work in concert with other firepower to take out enemy armour, as they are mostly trimming hull points now, not wrecking multiple tanks.

These are just my personal observations, and your own experiences may vary. All I can re-emphasise is to keep on playing games and trying things out!

Friendly fire report form

To: Segmentum Tempestus High Command
From: Captain Rafiq, Tallarn XVI
Date: 7835912.M41
Theatre: Laxus Sector
Planet: Lambum Obscurum

5th Platoon of my company was ordered to advance into no man's land with heavy support from the available armoured units. I was doing as ordered and was on schedule when my forces were engaged by an unknown force of power armoured marines. I have since been informed that the warriors in question are actually a loyalist chapter called the "Sons of Tyr".

I am afraid that I cannot give much of an account of the incident myself as the first action of the matter was a perfectly timed and executed decapitation strike by drop pod on my position. Despite the heroic efforts of my seconded medical officer (whose name I have forgotten, but I would wish to recommend for a posthumous award of some kind - can someone senior pick something appropriate?), I was rendered unconscious by a hail of bolt gun shells.

The medical recovery teams have done an excellent job, and my force only took 97% fatalities from the 100% casualties inflicted by the excellently co-ordinated assault of the Sons of Tyr. Apart from whoever was responsible for their briefing, I would commend them as an excellent force to face the vile renegades and xenos we face in this sector.

I shall forward the requisition for further secondment of troops to my company, additional armoured support and specialist troops under separate cover once I have recovered. Once again, my heartiest complements to the medical staff who tell me that I will be back on active duty shortly, with only a few more bionics.

Report ends.

Administratum additional report into loss of war materiel
To be appended to friendly fire report form
Restricted access: Not for viewing by field officers
To: Segmentum Tempestus High Command

From: Administratum Investigative Clerk, Count Karl Bolt
Date: 7836912.M41
Theatre: Laxus Sector
Planet: Lambum Obscurum

Once again, I find myself writing an investigative report into Captain Rafiq's loss of another platoon. To the dismay of many, the investigations have found that this loss is genuinely not his fault - unlike the platoons lost to his 'disagreement' with a Wolf Lord of the Space Wolves Chapter, which has led to the sector wide prohibitions about engaging in drinking games and / or insult contests with members of that Chapter for officers of the Imperial Guard, stemming from the unfortunate 'cultural exchange' incident that has led to Captain Rafiq being constantly "accidentally" attacked by members of the Space Wolves.

The Sons of Tyr, a successor chapter to the Raven Guard, with strong stylistic similarities to the Space Wolf chapter, engaged the Tallarn XVI on the mistaken belief that they were renegades. The Librarian who led their force has been exonerated as it appears that a enumerator servitor made an error in transposing the co-ordinates for both the Tallarn XVI and the Sons of Tyr's assaults into no man's land.

It is unclear whether this is due to one of Captain Rafiq's many, many enemies among the Imperium acting in a treacherous manner, hostile enemy action infiltrating the command chain, or simple technical error.

The influence of Captain Rafiq's father means that the matter will, as usual, be quietly dropped. Please fill in the usual forms and complete the necessary requisitions to get him back out onto the front line as quickly as possible, and hopefully he will be a little less lucky next time.

A productive weekend

Despite a merciless bout of light manflu that left me close to Satan in temperament, which meant I didn't go in to Darksphere for their monthly painting day on Sunday, I still got a whole bunch of stuff done!

I have been working on a test figure for an Imperial Beastman, to use the Penal Legion rules... I'm also photographing that for a step by step of what I did and how it went.

Here's a teaser for that:

I also finished cleaning up my Wicked Dolls ready for painting, started work on prepping a Vindicare for painting, done most of the green stuff work done for the Herald on Disc (wife is about to help out with a tricky bit), undercoated some cultists for a commission for the wife, and assembled a Sarissa Silo (pics to follow when I've fixed the bit I've already broken)...

Next Sunday I'll be rocking over to Darksphere for their Apocalypse game. I should really write up my list for that...

I also hope to write up a little more of the creative writing over the army background of the Tallarn XVI soon. I am rather excited about sharing the story with people, although it doesn't really enthuse folk as much as rumours or interesting models do...

More shameless attempts to gain free stuff...

Zaphod over at Masterminis is still trying to up his blog traffic by prize giveaways...

The latest one is that if you follow the instructions on his blog, you enter you (and me) in a chance to win a copy of Dark Vengeance each...

{in my best Godfather-esque accent}

"So go and talk to Zaphod, and tell him I sent you. It will be a thing that is in your interest and my interest."

Investigative Report, Draft Copy (fiction)

Inspired by the wonderful work by Colonel Scipio, Headologist, and Zzzzzz, I got inspired to write some fiction about the recent battles I've been having and the regiment I've been collecting. There is more to come! 


To: Captain Rafiq, Tallarn XVI
From: Lieutenant Yusuf
Date: 7824912.M41
Theatre: Laxus Sector
Planet: Fellminster

Upon receiving your orders to investigate the whereabouts of Lieutenant Sufyan's platoon, which had not returned from their standard clearance patrol. Investigating their expected route, we found an area in the lower east sub sector which was the scene of a conflict.

A storage building for the nearby light agriculture had taken a direct hit to its generator through one and a half feet of plascrete. The burn marks would match those caused by a close ranged shot from a melta gun. A dead guardsman from second squad was found in the lee of the building on the opposite side to the door, and the charred remains of the three Ratling auxilia seconded to Lieutenant Sufyan's expedition were a short distance to the north.

Our medical officer informs me that one of the three abhumans had suffered a broken leg, which would be explained had they jumped from the roof of the building. No other bodies were found, either of assailants nor the missing platoon.

To the west of the building, the wrecked remains of the command Chimera were found. The remains of the crew were within, but not the passengers. The APC was destroyed with a single well placed anti tank shot, probably from short range.

Given Lieutenant Sufyan's exemplary record, it is most likely that he encountered an unexpected overwhelming force. The unrecognised weapon pattern, minimal number of deceased (and all those killed were killed by explosive force) and lack of enemy dead indicates an enemy raiding force who wished to conceal their presence, probably of Xenos origin. It is unlikely that our expected renegade opponents were responsible for the losses.

Recommendations:
The records of those whose bodies were found (dog tags attached) should be updated to indicate they were killed by enemy action.
The records of Lieutenant Sufyan's platoon (appendix attached), less those known to be deceased, should be marked as MIA, with a note indicating that should they be found, further investigation be made as to their reasons for not making contact with Imperial forces sooner.

Appendix I: Platoon complement

Lieutenant Sufyan
Four guardsmen assigned to command section
Two squads of ten men each
One Chimera from the XVI infantry's motor pool (reserved primarily for officer use)
3 Ratling Auxilia, seconded from Tollo 2nd

Creeping into November

Goals from last month

• Progress in each of the "categories" I use on my tracking spreadsheet, which are; "Imperial Guard", "Malifaux", "Grey Knights", "Ad hoc projects" and "Scenery".

Failed. Progress only really in the Imperial Guard, basing the Conscripts.

• Get the Malifaux Collodi crew painted, if not based

Failed. Marionettes have started painting, but that's about it.

• My friend's Herald of Tzeentch at least undercoated and ready for paint.

Failed. Not looked at. I'm a terrible friend.

I did, however, manage to finish tidying my study, leading to me earning my 40K rulebook from Sim!

Gaming and some first thoughts on 6th Edition

Also, rather than have our local youngsters demand money with menaces from us on Halloween, Sim and I popped down to Darksphere for the casual 40K night.

I did not take photos. I fail as a blogger.

While my wife had the local cheese weasel (he'll be proud for me to call him that) show her the terrible things Grey Knight Henchmen can do at 500 points, I managed to grab a nice chap called Louis when he finished his game for a quick 1,000 match up.

Louis plays Raven Guard successors, using Space Wolf codex rules. He had a Rune Priest, a couple of Grey Hunter Squads (one in a drop pod), some Long Fangs, a Dreadnought and a Speeder. Tons of lovely kit bashing, which readers will know I'm a big fan of.

I took a trimmed back version of the normal list, with a small company command squad, a psyker, infantry platoon, Veterans in a Valkyrie, a Demolisher and a Hydra.

The mission was "Big Guns Never Tire", with standard deployment on a 4 x 4 board.

I was thoroughly schooled, with the opening turn being an absolutely canon perfect decapitation strike by the Drop Pod squad, coming in behind my lines to obliterate my Warlord and wipe out his squad with brutal short ranged shooting to earn Louis both First Blood and Slay the Warlord.

I won't bother with a blow by blow, but it ended with all my models on the table dead while the Valkyrie was off turning around. I learnt some useful lessons, however!

- The Imperial Pie Plate still scares the pants off anyone in power armour.
- Tanks can be more reliably taken down this edition, but can still be useful and dangerous
- Fliers are really useful, but Valkyries with MRPs are less good given the new flying rules - should focus more on using as a transport and less as a gunship. Also, may want to consider looking back at the standard one shots it comes with
- Hydras are dead good on skimmers and fliers, but at smaller point games may not make their money back
- Plan your flier movement from the start, so you have a good idea of where you're likely to go
- My current list still suffers from power projection issues - it doesn't put enough threat across the table fast enough
- Cover is still useful, even if its a lower number - your opponent has the same issue too
- Focus on objectives - while I was still wiped, I could have put a more credible threat out earlier on

And finally . . .

I have been selling bits and pieces on ebay, and thus had a little money to spend on bits on ebay too.

I realised a short while ago that my Imperial Beastman conversion was hamstrung by a lack of left arms (cursed lack of forward planning!) but a good mate mailed me more than I needed to complete the project in exchange for a couple of Cadian torsos for him to test out one of his projects.

I also picked up a couple of sprues of Glade Guard, which still had five hooded heads on! Woo! These are hard to find cheap. The remaining bits that don't fit guard have now been passed on for my wife's bits box.

I've also bought a few Dwarf Warriors to see if an easy Squat kitbash is at all feasible. I am somewhat doubtful. I'm still waiting for these to arrive, though.