This Week on the Front Line

(Photo by Lords Baine and Imogene Bailey.)

I had the chance to play a couple games this week, both against chaos, I used the Imperial Guard.

The first battle was an infantry platoon (40 strong) with armoured support in the jungle. As the patrol investigated a temple by the river, daemonic forces began to appear.

The Wolf Pack (my chimera-mounted vets) were able to secure the forward objective early in the game, which brought the attention of a few daemonettes.

The Wolf Pack lasted three turns of combat with the daemonettes, holding out until the second wave of infantry crossed the river. Then the mushroom-man came...

With the objective lost (save two grenade launcher specialist tied up in combat with a herald, sadly nobody could kill each other), a third wave was sent as the guns took aim. The mushroom intercepted the third wave, killing guardsmen in the waters.

In the end, the game was a tactical draw, as the other objective was assaulted by flamers and fiends (with a greater daemon just across the river), but held.

The other game played involved the Scream-Killers and Slaaneshi Daemons in an urban warzone. The Imperium responded with an armoured assault supervised by Witch Hunter Jack Daniels. (Yes, ogryns popping out of a sewer marker....)

We were playing the "plant the flag" scenario, which meant we both had to get around the board. As it turned out both sides chose the sewer markers and combat engineers strategems, providing 8 markers total!

The aircraft, a Valkerie and Vulcher, did their usual terror tactics (buzzing the front lines with multiple missle pods), and the non-scoring units attempting to get in the way and cause as much damage as possible.

Part of my plan was to make sure everybody had a buddy, which worked quite well. Squads of infantry ploughed behind hellhounds and the punisher, clearing building of heretical taint.

It was the first battle for the Punisher, who did quite well until a daemon prince tore it apart. Maybe it will get it's battle honours next time...

So thanks to my opponents for the great games! Until next time...
Ricalope.

Masters of Ordinance and the Fleet

The last two members of the 609th IST Regimental Command are finished. On the left, (once known as Master Holt from WARMACHINE's mercenaries) is my Master of the Fleet. On the right, the Master of Ordinance.

As soon as I saw Holt, I saw him as some rouge trader's nephew, equipped with the finest Imperial coin can buy. Some rich-kid out to prove himself on the battlefield. I like his glasses.

The Master of Ordinance (which you may have seen in an earlier post) uses his hardware to pinpoint co-ordinances for the unseen artillery battery and radio them in.

And now it is time to paint some eldar. Be well.
Ricalope.

EPA!

A friend of mine has been working on a piece of swamp. So far it is two sections, each 1'x2' and I think it is looking pretty good.

Problem is, the board is warped. My thoughts are to build styrofoam walls for it to fit into with leads into the river, concrete style. Although, I am not sure yet.

Any ideas about how to solve this dilemma?

Ricalope.

Oden Primary: Tempestus

The Imperial world of Oden Primary (the main habitable world in the Odin System) has been at war for more than a century. Between the great factory-hives lies a desolate and scarred wasteland. The planet`s only remaining forests circle the equator, this dense hyper-tropic jungle is known as the Belt. There are four main hives on Odin; Tempestus, Vaust, Chemrol, and the ork-contested Rendus. The hives of Vaust and Tempestus are home to most of the world`s tank manufactoriums, and are ranked as high priority by the Munitorium.

Tempestus, for unknown reasons, has been relatively untouched by war with the exception of a few xenos raids. Its bastions are intact and PDF untested in battle. To the north is the fuel producing Hive Rendus, and to the south lies the jungles of the Belt. Of late, reports from Rendus have been scattered, and recently the hive was completely cut off to all communications. Recon patrols have reported warp related disturbances near pre-crusade ruins in the Belt. The Ordo Malleus and The Daughters of Odin have been notified of these troubles.

South-eastward of Tempestus, mechanicus priests have begun unearthing what they believe to be eldar ruins. They were first alerted by seemingly random energy flares in the region and set to investigate. Once established, the research faculty has been attacked by the xenos as well as daemonic forces repeatedly. A regiment of PDF has been sent to establish a garrison.

Unknown to the six billion civilians of Tempestus, war is coming. Waaagh ryan approached from the broken hive Rendus, and the Scream Walkers chaos marines strike from the south. The eldar presence if keenly felt, hunting daemon and human alike. Convoys of 609th armour have been sent by Inquisitorial high command. Outside the hive tales of things that stalk the night, and viral quarantines circle each other.

Vets (not the ones you take your bunny to).

Off I go on another project, a second veteran squad for my 609th. The plan is to deploy them from a Valkyrie, and assassinate the heaviest armour. They will be taking the demolitions doctrine, three meltaguns and a bit of plasma.

For all-roundedness, I am equipping them with shotguns, with a powersword for the sgt. The shotguns are inspired by the talented Cadian 8th from his tutorial on shotguns.

As they will be jumping out of airplanes, each of them will also be equipped with a grav-chute and respirator. I still have some greenstuffing to do on the grav-chute and knee-pads, as well as the other six to do, they might end up as a tutorial sometime soon.

Thanks for looking, your thoughts?
Ricalope.

Fester: ...Begin

Fester

Enjoy...

...Ricalope

Frankie, Now In Color!

Well, it has been a while, (perhaps too long) but I finally finished painting Frankie. For those of you who haven't met, Frankie is a Slaughterfex who enjoys long walks and roasting guardsmen on tank-fires.

He turned out quite vibrant, thanks to the orange and green (I think). It is tempting to do a whole brood of these guys...

I will likely do sculpting and painting tutorials when I do the next batch of gaunts. Who wouldn't want to know how to make pustules!?

On the horizon is a Tyrannofex (mostly because I like the name, very monster-movie), to add the shooting to Frankie's combat. He will most likely be made from tyrgon, old carnefex and plastic carnefex bitz. Due to the beast having six wounds (same with the tervigon) it will be mounted on a large oval, it seems more fitting.

Due to the recent changes with the Hive Mind (read: Codex) I have began working on Fester, the Hive Tyrant, in order to get these guys on a battlefield.
Once again, be well (and beware the talons),
Ricalope.

I Survived GottaCon

I have returned from GottaCon and awakened from my rejuvenating coma. The weekend was an amazing success. The Rabbit Hole provided six tables of terrain for the Warhammer 40k tournament (three tables of city! I didn't know I had that much!)

The Friday began with an Apocalypse game starring some awesome models.
There were so many Imperials that some had defected.

The evil forces were bolstered by an ork stompa, the primary target for my vanquisher squadron, but the dice gods were fickle...

Space wolf scouts had decided to throw melta bombs at my tanks, leaving me with a single vanquisher with no cannon (...and my baneblade) while a horde of daemons came by at some point and slaughtered the dark angels beside me.

One of the many awesome armies, this one was one of my favourates, a mechanicus force all with binary names and army roster.

My first game was against an opponet I had not played in two years.

It was a bitter fight on the battlefeild, and a little bumpy as we got into the wargaming groove first thing in the morning.

Throughout the tournament my table would be visited by camera-drones with flares, this only inspired my troops to further feats of glory.

This game was a good one, as all my games were that weekend, with great opponents playing for the fun of the game.

One of the best parts about the weekend was playing on different terrain, although my guardsmen were very out-of-place in the jungle.

There were a few Guard players there, so fighting then was inevitable. Those battles are always bloody, I call them Fourhammer games.
I had picked my army as per the "Rule of Cool", which meant that I lost and drew my games, but it was worth it. I placed third in the best in show category and I am very happy with that, Bryce Jensen deserved the win (possibly the best eldar army I have ever seen).
Possibly the best game I played was against a pre-heresy World Eaters army led by Karn.

My opponent and I experienced some of the strangest luck with die-rolls resulting in strange things...

Almost half of his vehicles had immobilized themselves on terrain, the land raider on the first turn, all of which I failed to destroy.

It took place on one of the most interesting city fight table with this factory building in the center.

The World Eaters ended up doing what they do best, kill their way through my troops to the objectives, I lost horribly.

The highlight of the entire tournament was the shoot-out between my veteran squad and his chosen. Each squad was equipped with as much plasma as they could carry, and once out of their vehicles, started a firefight in the middle of the street. With no cover between them, plasma, las and bolter rounds ripped apart both squads, neither of them assaulting across the three inches between them. Finally there was one member of each squad, each with a plasmagun, firing at point blank range for two rounds. Finally, Gary scored a wounding hit on the marine as his gun exploded in his hands! I love plasma!

Every so often I would go and see what was happening on Oden Prime, it was odd (yet really cool) seeing battles wage on my terrain and not having a single model upon them.

I have to thank Paul Puhallo for organizing and running this tournament, it was one of the best I have played in so far. All the players I met were great opponents, making the weekend drip with awesomeness.

I must apologise for any blurryness of the photos, the entire weekend was a sleep-deprived caffine-rich gaming binge and at some point I forgot where the camera went!

Well, until the next one,
Ricalope.