A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Warhammer 40,000 – The new edition of 40K has changes some fundamentals when it comes to building a force. In the last edition you wanted to maximize the number of attachments you had to get the most command points and characters
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Warhammer 40,000 - I judge a book by it’s cover, at least when it comes to miniatures. If something looks weird or slightly off with a new release I’ll typically pass. Which means I don’t necessarily look at the codex entry for such models because I pass them off as fugly or overcosted. When the seventh edition GSC book finally dropped I built almost my entire force from two boxes of Death Watch: Overkill that I picked up on discount. When I finally did pick up the five man box of Acolyte/Metamorphs all I built were the special and heavy weapons from the box because Overkill didn’t include any of them.
With the Eighth Edition book I’ve been trying to expand my collection with building block units. Having built a solid core that I’m happy with it’s now time to look at adding some units that might be able to fill a different role or be less CP dependent to pull off the tricks I need them too.
Having some extra bodies left after building all the Rock Saws I needed I decided to take a look at the other options the Acolyte kit could build. Not being familiar with the Tyranid Biomorphs I thought some of them were very odd and didn’t fit the look I was going for. After reading through the entry I settled on giving the unit double talons and a hand flamer on each model. Since the unit is limited to 10, I could easily put them in a truck and drive around dumping 10D6 auto hits on units. Not that strength 3 will wound much but the potential is there. The more impressive stat that these guys have is more Attacks, they start with 3 attacks per dude and 4 on the leader, 31 attacks hitting on 3’s wounding most things on 4’s. Swapping the rending claw for another talon takes the attacks to 5 per dude 6 on the leader bringing us up to 51 attacks and these 51 attacks now hit on 2’s thanks to the talons. That is some serious potential damage output.
If toughness 3 hordes are raining on your parade. This unit can tear things up. Cast Might From Beyond on them and pick the Twisted Helix trait you’re now looking at 61 attacks, hitting on 2’s wounding on 2’s that should mulch through those bodies fairly reliably.
Right now these guys are in a “playable paint stage” my goal with my own stuff it to quickly paint it to a minimal tabletop standard so everything looks cohesive, once I have a lull in commissions I’ll go in and paint these guys to my personal standard and really get the colors to pop on the table.
Warhammer 40,000 – This should be the last of the Hivefleet Levithan Genestealer Cult. (Well that is until my client here’s some other crazy list idea and decides to add to this one). These guys will be filling in the missing pieces from what I’ve already painted.
It of course includes the obligatory nine mortar teams that fills up the heavy support slot in a brigade, camps on objects and locks down your backfield. Besides the three guard infantry squads this is probably one of the most common units you see on 40k tables.
Also in this batch is a Patriarch (which is painted in the opposite colors as the Broodlord he runs in his Leviathan force), the Biophagist, Kellermorph and Sanctus.
Warhammer 40,000 – Since the release of the 8th Edition Genestealer Cult Codex I’m been trying to figure out a list that works for me. Initially I looked at doing the Tyranid, Guard and Cult force … but that’s not really where I wanted to go with my force. To me GSC is about hidden mutants and dissidents rising up to overthrow the Fascist Imperial Oppressors. The dark Cthulu-esque nature of a cult from beyond the stars is really where the GSC thrives narratively. For me unless it’s part of a campaign or the later part of an uprising allying with Tyranids doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. I’m sure there’s probably a good way to justify it as you can usually rationalize any story hook.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I’ve painted Hivefleet Leviathan and Black Legion for one of my clients who was clever enough to plan ahead and have me paint his “guardsmen” to work with both forces as cultists. Now that the Genestealer Cult book has dropped his forward thinking has a good portion of his force done.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 - Each week I host a 40k night for my gaming group depending on the week I’ll usually have between 2-8 guys that make it out. Over the course of the year we’ll try and run a few campaigns in addition to just some standard pick-up games. This week we had an odd number of players so we played a 2v1 game. I had 1,000 points of Genestealer Cult which teamed up with two Imperial Knights to face off against 2,000 points of Grey Knights. Typically we’d try to forge a better narrative with the Imperials teaming up but the Grey Knight player just picked up the force and wanted to try playing his full list.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The ubiquitous Imperial Guardsman has been making his presence felt through out the 41st Millennium and in the last year has found his way into a variety of lists. The Imperium, Chaos and Tyranids can take advantage of the benefits this little guy and his friends bring to the table. So it only makes sense that I’m starting to see “multi-purpose “ guardsmen. Built from the Imperial Sprue, with some Genestealer Cult bits mixed in painted to match the colors of three other armies while remaining unique is my latest commission project.
Read MoreNecromunda – Combat shotguns are probably one of the most versatile guns available when playing Zone Mortalis style Necromunda. Knowing you're going to get up close and personal against groups of enemy fighters means the shredder rounds will put in work. Template weapons in general are nasty because they pin you without having to "hit" against a close combat orientated gang like my Genestealer Cult it's devastating.
Read MoreNecromunda – Having played a few games with the gangs that came in the boxed set I decided it was time to branch out and experiment with the Genestealer Cult. I've always been a big fan and while I'm not using my Warhammer 40,000 Genestealer Cult until they get a new codex I can use the models I already own to build a pretty cool gang.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – In preparation for my birthday tunnel fight event I spent some time putting some paint on my Genestealer Cult. This is a project I was really excited about when it first came out and then I lost steam when 8th edition came out. Between getting my marines of both varieties up to speed and numerous commissions; I haven't had much space on my paint table.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – 8th edition continues to shine as my group tries playing through various size battle and themes to see what we like best in 8th. I've owned Fantasy Arc's Bug Hunt Corridors for some time now and I will eventually complete all the parts I have so i can justify picking up some of his cool new rooms and specialty corridors.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 - Regular readers will know I have a terrible time following my own projects to completion. Commission work I breeze through in record time and can easily crank out a massive force in a few weeks, but when it comes to my own models I have shelves of things that got three colors to get to the table and I never quite got around to finishing them (Looking at you Space Marine Chapter...)
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 - Here's another piece for my mining industrial terrain set. At this point it's playable but no where near done with painting. My goal with this set was to get it together, base coated and washed as fast as possible so I could get it on the table to play Shadow War: Armageddon. Now that 8th edition has released I'm thinking I'll get back to this project after I finish the Genestealer Cult army that is supposed to match this terrain set.
I stopped working on my own armies to focus on terrain until the rule set was released and I could confirm what I was working o was still playable.
Warhammer 40,000 - I love Shadow War so much so that I built a second Kill Team from my Genestealer Cult army. I wasn't loving how the GSC played in 40k right now, so I temporarily shelved them to work on my Night Lords. With 8th edition looming I'm reluctant to do to much more with either force as the formations that make up the lists might not be valid or optimal under the new rules. So instead I'll work on small kill teams to play in Shadow War right now.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Weeknights i try to keep games to 1500 points a side. it makes it possible to finish a game within the few hours, This week three of us got together to play 1500 points of Genestealer Cult vs 750 points each of Deathwatch/Inquisition and Tau.
We played the football field deployment, maelstrom mission with the reducing objectives. The city set-up had plenty of blocked lines of site so it wouldn't be a shooting gallery.
I stuck with the same list I've been playing. I don't think it's optimized but it was the most cost effective choice with the two Deathwatch: Overkill boxes I acquired. Each game I get a little better and have an easier time remembering all the special rules and interactions. Repetition is the best way to learn right?
My opponents had a Deathwatch squad in a drop pod, two inquisitors in chimeras with henchmen squads. The Tau had a few suits, fire warriors and pathfinders. No 100% of the complete list breakdown but that should be pretty accurate.
They won the roll to set up and go first, I got some really good rolls on the Cult Ambush chart, including a "6" with my first curse massive formation. Throwing caution to the wind I place them very aggressively and hope to seize the initiative. Sadly that roll doesn't go my way so my super aggressive deployment meant heavy casualties. The few that did survive made it into combat and tore through everything unfortunately leaving them open for another round of shooting.
On the opposite side of the table the Deathwatch very thematically faced off against a horde of Neophytes and Acolytes. The chimeras were the star of the show on that end of the table and I really need to start them on the table every time I play. Outflanking never seems to pay off for me as well as trucking across the board drawing fire.
At the end of the game I had 9 points to their 6, but lost my last model on the top of turn five. It was by far the closest game I've had so far. Part of it was lucky rolls on the Score D3 cards that put me ahead on points. If I could have managed keeping something alive I would have got my first win.
Genestealer Cult is a tricky army to play, on paper it feels like it wants to get up in your face and win in the assault phase. In practice there's only a few units that you really want to get into combat: Genestealers and Mutants are amazing when they can get into an assault. The small units of neophytes and acolytes are better used to grab and hold objectives, I think. In practice when I get aggressive with them, five man units die to easily in the shooting phase. Being able to Return to Shadow and bring back friends should be really good, but I've yet to master the art of using it effectively.
Warhammer 40,000 – Do you remember those cult movies form the '80s? Fanatics enact some crazy plot to summon a big nasty from another plane and inevitably it would eat them or do some other nasty nonsense. Well that's pretty much the theme for this game.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Finally had a minute to start work on my genestealer cult. Not really much progress per say but getting them assembled is my primary goal at the moment. I want to have a solid 1000 points built that will be my core so I can learn to play them before I invest in more models.
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