A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Warhammer 40,000 – The Escalation Campaign is over. Unsurprisingly Chaos lost. In the final battle I used a different Chaos force than I had been using to represent the Nightlords abandoning the system with the meager spoils they claimed just as Chaos re-enforcements meandered onto the scene. Given the once sided nature of the campaign it was inevitable that Chaos would turn on itself.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Cadians are always a popular choice, particularly for a basic 3C + Wash paint job. Castellan Green, Agrax Earthshade and some metallics make quick work of these bad boys.
Order Up!
Warhammer 40,000 – The Black Legion commission I periodically do work on continues to supply a steady stream of models to fill out any options he doesn't own yet. At this point the models I've seen are less common for bulk painting so the models tend to be a bit more unique.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Escalation Leagues are typically a sneaky way to get people to finish off a force or get a reasonable amount of models painted. Which is great because typically you win the war against gray plastic thorough escalation. Tying it into a campaign system is just a bonus.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – One of the coolest (or most annoying) things about 8th Edition 40k is list construction. The Keyword system means you can cherry pick the units you want to build whatever force you want. From a thematic aspect this is very cool as it can represent the disparate forces abandoned to the darkness after the Great Rift ripped the galaxy in two. Which means it's feasible to have several units of marines traveling with the remnants of a guard regiment being led by some group of Imperial Heroes with a Knight backing them up. Or recreating odd pairing that you see in Black Library books all the time. For instance I'm reading Death of Antagonis right now and am tempted to pick up a Canoness to run along side my Imperial forces. It's not super strong but could make for a cool narrative.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I don't think I can extoll the virtues of making up your own force and color scheme in 40k enough. The flexibility it affords and money you can save in the long run is really worth it. Of course you'll occasionally get somebody who gives you the side-eye every time you say successor chapter but whatever that will happen regardless of what you do.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – If you build a list to table an opponent in 2-3 turns you will win 90% of your games this is the sad truth with most tabletop games. Weird missions and other things to improve tactics so players play to the mission are great. But when the final score doesn't matter because you have no models left does playing to the mission matter?
Read More
Warhammer 40,000 – After last week I'm not sold on the Juggernaut Lords, they did ok, but I'm not sure they are my style. If the Knight wasn't there I think they would have been shot down early in the game.
This week I'm going back to the Raptors and Tzeentch Daemons. The reality is this is the style of force I wanted to play when I started putting together Night Lords and I should have just stuck with it. Sure there's tons of stuff I could do with the Chaos keyword but thematically scary stuff dropping out of the sky to stab you is what I wanted.
This week for 74PL I'm running:
Tzeentch Vanguard
Daemon Prince w/impossible Robe and Daemonspark
Flamers (3x)
Flamers (3x)
Flamers (3x)
Screamers (3x)
Giant Chaos Spawn
Giant Chaos Spawn
Night Lords Outrider
Sorcerer on Bike
Raptors (5x) w/Flamers and Combi-Flamer
Raptors (5x) w/Melta and Combi-Melta
Raptors (5x) w/Melta and Combi-Melta
Warp Talons (5x)
Cultists w/Autoguns (20x)
Not a whole lot of command points with this build. I'm not sure I'll be deep-striking many Daemons this time. Honestly I shouldn't have to everything moves at least 12" but the cultists so closing the gap in mass should be easier. One of the things I've noticed with trying to alpha-strike constantly is a.) my opponents expect it and b.) if things don't go perfect those few units you dumped in are unlikely to survive.
Warhammer 40,000 – It's always weird to me when a Chapter Tactic that has been traditionally overlooked suddenly becomes really good. With the Raptors successor chapter using their special character rules combined with their parent chapters tactics you have a very potent gunline or alpha strike with the best of them.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – This week my Night Lords faced off against Space Marines and Sisters of Battle/Inquisition. Since the Inquisition was involved it's pretty easy to twist the narrative to accommodate a three-way carnage game.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I'm really happy with how my escalation league/campaign is going. For most of the last session I was play-testing a list I wanted to take to an event. Something came up however that means I won't be able to attend the event. That being the case I decided for this portion of the campaign to go another direction.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Necromunda used to be one of my favorite games. Sadly the awesomeness the is 8th Edition Warhammer 40,000 has overshadowed the game in my local group. Combined with the "lack of rules" for older gangs it's been a hard sell. However once we wrap up our current escalation league I plan on doing a short Necromunda campaign.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – For the fifth week of the Agrax Campaign I decided to modify my list a bit. Same models just trying different traits to see what works best. This time around I'm putting Daemon Spark on my Princess to bump up the damage potential from my Flamers. This force might still be to small to take best advantage of the alpha strike. What I've been seeing it while I can hit hard on the first turn I've generally loosing them to return fire, when I am able to put more threats on the table it should help this detachment survive a bit longer. Last week I tried out bulking this out with a battalion, this week I'm trying the same thing but keeping the cultists back as objective grabbers.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I love reliability, every time I give one of my clients back a project he brings me another. I think his plan is to have every option covered with the forces he likes to play with so while it might be a different force each time there's almost always something.
This time around I'm painting more Ad Mech. Different options of course but more red and gunmetal. One of my favorite models in this batch is the robot he converted to look like it's powered down. It's a fun nostalgic easter egg for those that get the reference and and cool way to make the robots look unique. Since the kit really only makes the static pose that's typically what you see on the table, and since its arguably the best unit in the book you tend to see lots of static posed "Robbie the Robots."
The rest of the models are just head and weapon swaps from the rangers I've already painted. The long rifles look cooler in my opinion that the other option but it's hard to argue with more shots.
Warhammer 40,000 – Many of my clients seem to be filling in holes in their collections as of late. Most recently I painted up these two Wyverns and a Nephilim Jetfighter. As with the previous models for this client these are just a basic paint job to match his existing models.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – This week I'm going to try out a list I plan on taking to RIW Hobbies Escalation Event. It's an interesting format as you start with 500 points and then add another each round. Essrntially playing a slow grow league in the course of a day. Several other local groups just did escalation leagues so it makes sense to give players a chance to test their mettle in a single day event.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – This week I played another 2v1 game. Which meant I was running two complete 50PL armies, double what I had prepared for. Luckily with power level its super fast to build a list, I grabbed a Chaos Knight 24PL, a terminator sorcerer 6PL, a dark apostle 6PL and 4 units of cultists 3PL each. Quick and easier. whatever they're carrying is what they're armed with and I'm ready to play.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The first session of my clubs escalation league saw me get throughly trounced. I feel like my Raptors never could effectively alpha strike and when I tried they would get wiped off the board in the following turn. If they could have ever took out their points worth that would have been fine, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Life finds a way ... to change your plans. This week due to unforeseen events what was going to be a full house gaming session turned into a 2v1 battle. I had to had my group for the next session of this league to fight against a combined Imperial Guard/Space Marine force.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – This week saw the launch of the escalation league I'm running for my local club. I was able to squeeze in three games, so much easier to do at 25PL, and managed to learn a bit about CSM Raptors in the process.
Read More
