Elysians VS Viet-Crons

"For our game this week we will crack out the 8th edition 40k rules and return to the unfortunate Imperial planet of Toxo IV.  This time, trouble has emerged in the equatorial jungle sectors, with a number of attacks reported on Binary Petroleum transportation facilities.  Planetary militia forces sent to investigate did not return, and scraps of surveillance footage transmitted from servitors shortly before they were destroyed showed only an ominous visage of a deadly Necron warrior, but of a sort never seen before in the Imperium... Binary Petroleum executives called in some favours with senior Imperial officials in the sector, and the Imperial Guard has now despatched one a regiment of Elysian Drop troops to the area." (Blurb by Greg)

"Our Khommunist Leader, His Rivetness Ho-Shi-Minh of the Hanoi Dynasty, has been suffering from metallikh rheumatism for a few aeons. “Research and Innovation” detachments have been sent to various locations throughout the galaxy to find a cure. A reconnaissance group dispatched to Toxo IV found containers full of a smooth substance called “Imperialum Foetidus ad Puppim” (at least, that’s what the label said), that, according to the group commander, could be used for a full immersion treatment for all Viet-crons suffering the debilitating condition of metallikh rheumatism. Plans were laid to develop the location into a spa with full robotic maintenance services when weak flesh creatures interfered."

During the 2016 Painting Challenge, I painted a Viet-Cong style army of Necrons, with rice-straw hats, sepcifically designed as potential opponents to GregB's Elysian army. For about two years now, GregB and I have been planning to have our armies clash in style in a jungle setting. Dallas was kind enough to host the game and prepared a terrain with palm trees and the appropriate scenery. ByronM joined me in directing the Viet-Crons while DaveV, Dallas and GregB shared command of the Elysians. We used the 8th edition of the rules.

Greg's awesome Elysian army. That's a lot of cool vehicles. Note the amazing jungle terrain prepared by Dallas.

The Viet-Crons, eager to fight the battle against the enemy that inspired their creation.

The Viet-Crons had to defend three objectives. Two groups of Warriors as well as the Flayed Ones were kept in reserve while the rest of the army deployed in the middle band of the table.

[Cue the "Ride of the Valkyries" by Wagner]. All the Elysian transports entered at the same time, trapping the Viet-Crons in the middle. A few support Elysian elements were airdropped and took position in the surrounding cover. Just for this outstanding opening "scene", I had to admit that it was worth painting the Viet-Crons.

The Wraith quickly took care of some snipers hiding behind the palm trees.

The Flayed Ones mowed down a group of heavy stubbers.

With the simultaneous entry of all the flyers, there was action everywhere! Imagine rocket explosions against the Monolith and strafing runs against the impassible Viet-Cron Warriors. Dallas fired 40 shots against a group of Warriors, but a combination of luck/unluck resulted in no losses for the Viet-Crons. Tough little buggers.

 The Destroyers are guarding the approach to the Monolith.

 A view from one of the flyers. Multiple rockets were shot at the Monolith, but thanks to the "Living Metal" special rule, the huge structure was able to self-repair some of the damage.
 

 Menace in the sky and chaos on the ground. Elysian troops are trying to break through.

 Transports are unloading courageous troops into the fray. What could go wrong?

 Viet-Crons are pounded with missiles and harassed with close assaults. I must admit my troops are quite resilient, and it takes a lot to decimate a unit. Then there is the "reanimation protocol" that brings back units from the dead. Very handy and apparently very annoying to the opposing side.

A group of scarabs engaged some weak-flesh Elysians. The little bugs proved their worth more than once.

Heavy combat near the Monolith. The Lychguards would eventually catch up to one of the flyers and crash it down.

A view of the intense battle near the Monolith.

The final shot of the battle, showing lots of de-activated warriors. At this point, the Elysians had too few ground units left to claim more than one of the three objectives.

Imperial News Network (INN)  sent reporters for live coverage of the "Cleansing of the Xenos" mission.

The Elysian commander pointing at a weak spot in the metallic structure, just seconds before a particle whip separated the atoms in his body.

All in all, I had a lot of fun playing this totally crazy battle, with combat and explosions all over the place. The cinematic of this game was on par with any Viet-Nam war movies. Thanks again to all those who participated.

Some Random Painting Projects

It's been a while since I have posted, so I figured it was time to put up something.  Over the last few weeks I have been working away on a number of completely different painting projects in a couple of completely different styles.  Just trying to learn and improve on some of my painting skills.   Hope you like.


Kingdom Death Dung Beetle Knight


This was a piece I have wanted to paint for a long while but wasn't quiet sure how to go about it.  I wanted it to have an iridescent look like some insects have, but wasn't sure how to do it.  I decided to give the Forge World transparent airbrush paints a shot and am pretty happy with the results.

I painted the whole model silver, then clear coated it and did a pin wash with black oil paint to get all the crevasses black, then wiped up the model with white spirits so that there was no black outside the recesses and clear coated it again.  I then airbrushed on some clear green over the silver and then yellow at the highest points.  I then hit the wings with some purples and greens to give a shimmer to them. 

The "fur" type areas and everything else were done with my normal painting methods as this piece was just to play with that clear metallic look, which I think came out pretty well, especially in person.


Arena Rex Beast Master

This model is another great Arena Rex figure that has so much character.  Not really much new tried here other than some blending to get the transition on the hyena right.  I had a lot of fun with this one though.  Same NMM as on the other Arena Rex gladiator I did previously.

His tartan was fun to do, but not super clean, the lines are not all completely even.  Freehand is something I will have to work on sometime soon as well.

Ultramarine Space Marine

This figure was done to play more with glazes.  He was painted with a black base colour and then zenithal highlighted with grey and white with an airbrush.  Then the blue on him is a single shade of blue glazed over in thin coats, then glazed over again with an off-white mixed in for the highlights.

While I have glazed before, I wanted to do a test piece with the simplest colour to do (blue) to play around with what results I could get.

Since I was spending some time on him, I also decided to do NMM for the shoulder pad and chest, but used normal metallic paint for his shoulder pad trim and the teeth on his sword.

I then weathered him up with chipping and scratches and then attached him to the base.

Looking at him now, I may need to go back and transition the caution stripes to fit the rest of the transitions, but you don't really notice that in person it's only the camera that catches it.

Death Guard Knight

Last up is a piece I have wanted to do for a long time and just never have gotten around to. It was another chance to work even more on my weathering and rust effects, this time adding the cool new AK Oilbrushers product to the mix.

I wasn't really sure how to go about painting or converting this model as ideally I wanted it usable in both my 30k and 40k Death Guard armies.  I decided in the end that since Knights would generally be by house and not legion that I could get away with a lot, so went with a look similar to my 30k force which is old and weathered, since I am going for a look of the guys that followed Garro and had to weather the bombardment of Istavan IV.

I started by painting the whole model black, but leaving all the armour plates off.  I then painted the armour plates in various shades or brown, red, and oranges with the airbrush.  I kept the paint thick and the air pressure super low so that it splattered on in random patches, and kept layering in colours.  Once that was done I put on AK chipping and scratch solutions in various areas, and then painted on the bone and green colours.  Once that was all done the magic begins.  I spray the paint with water and then start brushing it, and it just starts pealing off randomly, revealing the under colour.



Once all the chipping was done, it was time to break our the AK Oilbrushers (pre-thinned oil paints in mascara type bottles) and use them to apply dots of colour to the chips.  I then used white spirits to pull that down into smooth rust and dirt streaks.

The entire mechanical skeletal parts were done black, then shaded up with 3 silver colours, and then treated to the same Oilbrusher treatment.  I put browns, oranges, and even yellows in to get the blends looking like rust.  I may go back and add even more.



Last up was "blueing" the barrels which I did mainly with the Forge World transparent airbrush paints I got for the Dung Beetle Knight from earlier.  I started with doing 1/2 the barrel copper (Vallejo) and then did purple over most of that, then blue over part of the purple, and then black over the very end.  I think it came out ok and looks close to realistic.

Onto other projects now...

So there you have it, 4 recent painting projects with 4 fairly different styles.  I am now moving onto a few new projects including even more different looks.  Currently on the painting table are some heavily converted Death Guard vehicles (with even more spikes, tentacles, pus, and skulls, because I know how Greg loves all that stuff on GW models), some alternate Sisters of Battle figures, another Arena Rex figure or two, and some modern stuff from Spectre. 

OH, and a pile of terrain that I need to paint up as demo pieces now that I am producing that again as well!

Battle at the Farm - 8th Edition Style

Conscript Keegan in a pensive mood over 8th edition

The Battle at the Farm... a legendary encounter! The first-ever scenario from back in the days of Rogue Trader - pitting Pedro Kantor and the survivors of the Crimson Fist chapter against Thrugg Bullneck, Sergeant Hruk, and their Space Ork warband in a scrap over a ruined farmhouse.

While we had played the scenario a few years ago using the original rules for the 25th anniversary of Rogue Trader, we wanted to try it again for the 30th anniversary and our inaugural battle report with the new 8th edition rules...

So we set up the game with the original terrain layout, but updated armies. On the Ork side, a 55 power level army - from bottom to top in the photo above: a 20-Ork unit of Boyz and Warboss Hruk, a Deff Dread, a unit of five Tankbustas, a unit of ten Stormboyz, a unit of ten Boyz, two Skorchas, and Thrugg himself, a Warboss in Mega-Armour.

On the Space Marine side, also 55 power levels in play: two tactical squads of ten Marines each, a Dreadnought, a unit of five Scouts, an Imperial Space Marine (the awesome "LE02" limited edition model from last year), an Ancient standard bearer, an Apothecary, a Librarian, and Pedro Kantor himself.

(All of the Orks are Rogue-Trader-era metal models and the Crimson Fists tactical squads are all RTB-01 "Beakies", befitting the scenario. The Stormboyz have been kitted out with jump-packs from the newer plastic kit).

The Stormboyz, a Deff Dread, and Thrugg's mob of boyz deployed in cover behind Bultha's ridge. "Hruk, you take da big mob straight for da farm. I'll meet yer at da farmhouse," Thrugg ordered. "Sneaky," he thought to himself. "If Hruk makes it, it's coz he killed all da humies in da way. An' if he don't, then his share of da loot is mine!"

The humie gunline was indeed impressive though. Boltguns remain Rapid Fire in 8th and spit out a considerable weight of fire (2 shots per model up to 12"). Plus now, units can split fire freely, so the squad's missile launcher can shoot at the Deff Dread while the bolters shoot at boyz!

Da big mob advances. Ork gunz are mostly Assault, so Orks can Advance (regular move  +d6") and still shoot, albeit at -1 to hit. As their Ballistic Skill is already 5+ this reduces the expected number of hits by half...

As Thrugg sneaks around the Rise out of shot, the mob crashes into the wall of Marines. Defending an obstacle in 8th does not give much of a bonus, however - it only really means that models within 2" (not 1") of an enemy can fight. Charging models still fight first and that's what the boyz are good at!

Meanwhile one of the Skorchas used its special ability to outflank, and deployed on the Ork right table edge. It flamed out one of the Scouts and then charged into close combat. Yes, vehicles fight in close combat now - and the Skorcha was quite handy with a WS of 3+ and four attacks!

Back in the main fight things were going south for the Fists as Greg was plagued by some bad dice. The Orks were grinding away, assisted by Hruk who was pretty good himself. The Deff Dread acquitted itself well too, dispatching Marines with its mighty Klaw.

Things were looking promising as the Skorcha ground its way through the Scouts and their fey capes (!) while the second Deff Dread stomped over to finish the job. Thrugg and retinue can just be seen in the trees at top.

As noted, Greg's dice were appalling throughout most of the evening - here's the result of some Marines attempting a 2+ saving throw against Ork shooting. (Yes, the power armour save is still 3+ but instead of providing its own cover save, cover now adds 1 to a model's regular save. This is useful as "AP" now merely subtracts from the target's save rather than negates it altogether)

Thrugg can almost taste the loot as he and his retinue approach the farmhouse from the flank. Notably, difficult terrain no longer slows models' regular movement, but does subtract 2" from their Charge move.

After having several Boyz peeled off by Marine shooting the scene is set for the final showdown. Pretty much all that's left of the Fists are their characters and Dreadnought, but there's not many Orks left either. Everybody goes crashing into combat but Thrugg, who rolled snake-eyes on his Charge roll. So he's a spectator in the first round.

Things don't go so well for Team Green and it's up to Thrugg to salvage pride by taking out the hated Captain Kantor...

...which he does not... Kantor's spiffy wargear is too much for Thrugg, who whiffed his attacks. You don't often get a second chance against Space Marines and this time was no exception, Thrugg taking it on the chin.

A pretty bloody battle all around, which is just the way we like it. No survivors on the Ork side and only a handful of Space Marines left to try and relieve the holdout defenders of New Rynn City.

So that's 8th edition! Verdict... we like it. To be precise, big thumbs up for:

• variable move rates
• variable weapon damage
• saving throw modifiers
• no more universal special rules - everything's on the data card!

Enthusiasm was tempered for:

• Psychic warfare, which for the Orks (lacking a Weirdboy) was devastating
• cover saves being neutered

We're not keen at all on:

• No vehicle facings or weapon arcs. Pretty sure we'll house rule this
• Keeping track of 10 or more Wounds on models 

Looking forward to another game next week where I expect we'll try some vehicle house rules just as a bit of a tweak. Stay tuned!

40k 8th Edtion? Yes We (K)Can(tor)!

Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, ready to take on some Orks!

This week we will be getting together to try the new 8th edition of GW's Warhammer 40k a try.  As we are a bit of a nostalgic bunch at times, for our first game we will be doing a modified re-fight of "The Battle At The Farm", the scenario that was included in the original Rogue Trader rules. We played this scenario back in 2012 as part of our acknowledgement of Rogue Trader's 25th anniversary, so it seems more than appropriate that we would go back to the well of the Rynn's World story for our group's inaugural attempt at the 8th edition of the rules.

This week will be an opportunity to blow the dust (literally) off of my RTB01 plastic Crimson Fist Marines and bring them out for a little battle, which is awesome, but as there is a small sense of occasion, I did want to bring a new figure out too.  I thought the central hero for the Imperial side from the original "Battle At the Farm", Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, would be ideal, so I managed a rush order to Sentry Box and hoped it would arrive in time.

Lots of detail to paint on this lovely sculpt, sadly much of it a bit blurred thanks to my blundering with priming. F*** I hate priming figures and models. SO MUCH.

The figure showed up in the mail Tuesday, and I managed to get it assembled, primed and gave it a very rushed paint job in time for Thursday.  Unfortunately, whether due to humidity or whatever other f***ing gremlins emerge so often to bedevil priming processes for me, the vallejo black surface primer really did a number on the figure, gooping over several spots of detail and generally softening the look on an otherwise lovely sculpt.  Oh well.  That's what I get for rushing. It still looks not too bad, and from a couple feet away it looks more than adequate for the table.

Huge back banner, in case fellow Crimson Fists have trouble finding him...

I really don't care for the Mark VII armour helmets, so I dug a proper "beakie" helmet out of the spares box for this figure, as it ties him well to the other Crimson Fist marines in his command, even though his armour is pimped to the max etc.  I was also sure to use a smaller sized base so he would fit in with the rest of the gang.

Newly painted and spoiling for a fight.  What could go wrong??

While the original "Battle At The Farm" had only a few figures per side (a measure of how much more involved the original Rogue Trader game was), we don't think an 8th edition game with only 15 to 20 models per side will last all that long, so we are bulking the forces up just a little bit.  But the thrust of the thing is still the same - Pedro Kantor and some surviving members of his command are trying to get to New Rynn City to rally the defences against an Ork invasion.  Will they survive? Or will Thrugg Bullneck find his buried treasure and gather a few more Marine skullz for his bosspole? Watch this space for a battle report soon...