June Painting Pledge - Necrons and Chaos Daemons

Morning folks.

It's a bit far into the month for this, but if I don't post it I will be giving myself an excuse not to do it. Last month was quite a productive month, with the exception of my Eldar vehicle weapons, so this month I'm looking at a bit less painting and more building.

Paint:

• Necron Ghost Ark
• Remaining Eldar vehicle weaponry.

Build and Spray:

• 20 Bloodletters
• 1 Skullcannon
• 1 Herald of Khorne
• 3 Ravenwing Bikes

Buy:

• Eldar Codex
• 3 Ravenwing Bikes

So far I've made a bit of progress by getting the Ghost Ark basecoated in black, which is a massive chore since I've glued it all together and it's a right pain to get into the gaps.

I've also managed to glue up the Skullcannon. Originally I was hoping I could magnetise it to enable me to swap between the Bloodthrone and Skullcannon, but gave up on that as I needed the Herald on foot for my list idea.

That's all for now then, I'll be posting up a few more micro articles over the next couple of days, then on Monday hopefully do a photo dump from Phalanx.

SB

May Painting Pledge - Dark Angels and Necron Infantry

Morning folks.

I'm still kind of underway with my April painting pledge, but thought I would outline my plans for this upcoming month and hope I can clear off another chunk of backlog. Money is a bit tight this month, so hopefully I won't be buying any new minis to add onto this, although I'm still weighing up an army trade with someone on TWF - so that could get added on.

Last month I got all my Necron stuff sprayed up from when their new Codex came out. I've used Necrons twice in the time since their codex was released, but I'm hoping I can give them a bit more play time in the next few months and try and get myself an enjoyable 6th edition list with them.

I'm also hoping that since my Necron colour scheme is the old boring metal and black, this lot will get out of the way pretty fast. I'm sticking to the infantry this month however, as I want to take my time on the vehicles and do them at the same time as I intend to re-paint my Monoliths to match.

In addition to that lot, I've already started on painting my much anticipated (and probably quick to get shot to death) Plasma Cannon Devastator squad for my Dark Angels force. I'm hoping these guys are quick enough to get out of the way as I've already chewed into a chunk of time for this month.

On top of that, last month while I did some game trading and got a bit of cash, I went and bought myself a Belial model to replace my converted and magnetised one. With his new rules I can't imagine taking the other alternatives to the Sword and Storm Bolter, whereas in 5th edition I would always have taken the TH/SS. So he's also on the painting pile and my old model will become a Captain in Terminator Armour.

So here's this month's list in full:

Paint:

• 5 Dark Angels Devastators
• 1 Belial
• 1 Stormlord
• 1 Trazyn
• 1 Cryptek
• 1 Overlord
• 10 Immortals with Tesla
• 5 Lychguard with Voidblades and Shield.
• Remaining Eldar vehicle weaponry.

Build:

• 20 Bloodletters
• 1 Skullcannon / Bloodthrone

That's my list for the upcoming month. As I say, hopefully I've nailed DA painting and can knock the Devs and Belial out pretty quick, and the Necrons are a very, very basic colour scheme so shouldn't be too bad.

Here's hoping!
SB

April Painting Pledge - Eldar Vehicles

Morning folks!

It's the start of a new month so that means a new painting pledge! Having over-run February into March, I managed to claw some progress back and get them finished on time. Which leads me onto my next endeavour to "finish" an army off (for the time being).

This month's line up involves all my Eldar vehicles, which I'd been dreading painting for ages because they're vehicles and also really spindly and fragile. Even whilst I was getting them prepped half the stuff broke off and got re-assembled.

 

In here we've got 3 Wave Serpents with magnetised weapon turrets, a Falcon with a magnetised turret weapon choice, 6 War Walkers (4 with 2 x Scatter laser, 2 with Scatter laser and Missile launcher combo) and then the weapons to go onto my guardian squad's weapon platform.

They're all following my Ulthwe colour scheme, so I'm hoping that the Wave Serpents and Falcon are quite quick to paint up, as the War Walkers and weapons are going to be pretty awkward.

In addition to the painting pledge, I've got some hobby goals I want to get out of the way this month...

The first one is to sand the bases on my new Dark Angels Dev squad, all armed with plasma cannons from the Dark Vengeance sets. I'm trying to retro-fit my DA army to have plasmas where possible and thanks to a good deal off a bitz site, they seemed a logical inclusion. So these guys also need spraying and MAYBE become a stretch goal to get finished this month.

I'm quite excited to use them once painted, which means they'll all die to over-heating on the first shots fired.

On top of this, to get things ready for next month's painting pledge, I need to get my Necron reinforcements, from when their new Dex came out, sprayed up ready to be painted. I'm planning on sticking to the original Terminator style colour scheme for these guys, since that's what my old army is painted up as - so they'll hopefully be quick to paint up once sprayed!

There's also a Ghost Ark, Catacomb command barge and an Overlord to get done. My only worry for these guys is making the vehicles look good. My older Necron monoliths look a bit shabby now looking back on them, so what I do for the new vehicles will probably end up getting applied to the Monoliths when I re-do them.

Paint:

• 3 Wave Serpents
• 6 War Walkers
• 1 Falcon
• All the Wave Serpent, Falcon and Guardian platform weaponry.
  

Spray:

• Dark Angels Plasma Cannon Devastator Squad
• 1 Imotekh
• 1 Trazyn
• 1 Cryptek
• 1 Overlord
• 10 Tesla Immortals
• 5 Lychguard with Voidblade and shield
• 1 Ghost Ark
• 1 Catacomb Command Barge / Annihalation Barge

Buy:

• Soul Grinder
• Tyranid Additions
• Black Spray

That's all for now folks, busy busy month ahead it seems!

SB

December Painting Pledge - Eldar, Dark Eldar and Massive Optimism!

Morning folks,

This one's a bit late from me, partly because I forgot and partly because it's been quite hard to gauge my limits for the coming month. After today, I'm off work for a while and this time last year, I probably could have blitzed through my entire backlog as I would have been at home on my own for 8+ hours a day.

Now the reality is a bit different, but what I'm hoping is that whilst I'm in during the day it'll get rid of odd jobs, errands and housework that pile up until evening time and cut into my possible painting time. So, it's been really hard to gauge how much exactly I will or won't get done this month.

Anyways, enough of the life story. I'm aiming high for this month's push! Onto the lists!

Spray:
- Dark Vengeance Contents

 First up, I've had Dark Vengeance bought and built since it was released wanting the Chaos bits as allies for my Chaos Daemons and also to bulk out my Dark Angels. I love the Plasma tactical squad and it's only as I'm writing this that I really want to get another one.

These guys were built pretty quick but have been sat in a box ever since. With more daytime to play with whilst I'm off I can hopefully get these sprayed up ready for the new year!

Fix:
- De-magnetise Eldar Jetbikes.

I used these for the first time on Monday night and all my fears for them came true. The magnets I used were too small / not strong enough and I spent most of the time using them just trying to attach the model back to the flying stand magnet or fixing magnets back in as I went.

 
I think I'm going to try and remove the magnets off them, make the skimmer hole slightly wider and put the main stem into there and glue in place. Having to faff about sticking models back together during a game is something I really, really hate.

Also as I was putting stuff away, I dropped my Jetbike Farseer on the floor, so he needs repairing ASAP.

Paint:
- 1 Razorwing
- 1 Raider
- 10 Wyches
- 15 Kabalite Warriors
- 10 Hellions

Very optimistic with this lot. My logic is that it's freezing outside, so I'll be in the house of an evening more watching tele and getting some painting time in.

My logic is that this can be done in 3 batches. The first being the Razorwing and the Raider, they're very similar in that they're both vehicles and consist of 90% metal and flat panel work. I'm hoping I could knock these out in a week or weekend if I'm very lucky.

The second batch will be the 10 Wyches and 15 Warriors. 25 infantry is a fair chunk to aim for, but I'm allowing myself 2 weeks for this lot. They're similar in size and colours so it won't hopfully be too much of a stretch.

The last batch is the Hellions who I'm guessing are going to be quite awkward so whatever time is left after the first 2 can get spent on these.

By time these are done it should give me some new units to play with and try out the rules for in 6th edition - Flyers specifically.

WARNING!: We're leaving the valley of optimism and heading for Dreamland with the rest of this stuff.

The "Maybe" Fix Pile:
- Fix Ork flyers to have correct weapons
- Fix Ork flyers to attach to bases. 

Few years ago I made 2 Ork flyers for Apocalypse games out of some WW2 planes from Hobbycraft. With the rules for Dakkajets allowing me to finally field something I like in the Ork Fast Attack slot, I figure now would be a good time to convert them to proper weaponry.

The other issue with them is that they aren't attached to the flying bases properly. They used to be super-glued on, but as you can imagine... it's a nightmare to transport them like that. So along with converting the appropriate weapons, I need to find a reliable way to get them attached to the bases and take them off it at the end of each game.

Either that, or spend £45 on two new plastic planes from GW...

The "Maybe" Spray Pile:
- 10 Necron Immortals
- 5 Necron Lychguard
- Trazyn
- Imotekh
- 1 Cryptek
- 1 Ghost Ark
- 1 Catacomb Command Barge

This is last year's Christmas haul here. I got a bit excited when the Necron codex got re-done and bought lots of stuff with GW vouchers I got given, built it all and then never touched my Necrons again - mostly due to the amount of them that cropped up and the emphasis everyone had on the flyers. They became the Grey Knights.

Anyway, they're all built and sanded (I think) and hopefully if I can find time and spray, I'll get these done ready for the new year.

The "Maybe" Paint Pile:
- 6 Eldar War Walkers
- 3 Eldar Wave Serpents
- 1 Eldar Falcon

If I thought I was optimistic before... this is taking the mickey a bit. Last weekend I sprayed my 6 War Walkers, 3 Wave Serpents and 1 Falcon for my Eldar army that's now nearly a year old.

I'm hoping that since they're Ulthwe, these might be super quick to paint... but I'm slow when it comes to painting vehicles and at the end of the day, I don't want to do too sloppy a job.

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------//

Right, so that's my mega optimistic December list. I'll be lucky if I manage to just get Dark Vengeance sprayed but after Christmas comes I'll probably have loads of people to go visit, and hopefully a few new Xbox games and films to distract me from painting for the forseeable future.

If by some miracle I can get the Dark Eldar and Eldar shifted off the painting pile this year, I'm planning a massive curveball for January's painting pledge.

The Road to Britcon

It's time for another "The Road to" article series (they give me a reason to post). This time it is the annual Britcon tournament which we (MAWS) regularly attends, I haven't been for about 3 years now and am itching to get back there. Britcon was my first tournament that I attended and it was a great laugh and we have always had a good time each year, this year there will be a lot less competitiveness as the ETC is at a similar time and a lot of the British team attend Britcon so hopefully I can pick up a place.

Britcon is a 3 day event in mid august with 6 games, it was originally planned to be a farewell 5th edition tournament but has been changed to a welcome 6th. From the rules pack it looks like we won't be playing the Relic scenario (but this could be an early typo), and it will now be a 1999pt tournament rather than 2000pts.

Well I will be playing my first practice game on Monday and will be taking my Necrons running something a little like this:

HQ

Zahndrehk. 185

Destroyer Lord. 125
Septermal weave. 15
Mindshackle scarab. 20
160

Royal court. 95
Harbinger of the storm w/ ether crystal

Harbinger of destruction w/ solar pulse


Elites

Triarch Stalker. 150

Troops

15 warriors. 195
Night Scythe. 100
295

15 warriors. 195

6 immortals. 102
W/ tesla

6 immortals. 102
W/ tesla

Fast attack

3 wraiths. 105
2 whip coils. 20
125

3 heavy Destroyers. 180

5 Destroyers. 200

Heavy

Monolith. 200

That should be 1989 leaving me with 10 points spare.

The Destroyer Lord will be with the Wraiths in reserve to pop through the Monolith, Zahndrehk will be with one unit of 15 warriors giving out Special Rules and taking them away. The two Crypteks will be with the Immortals just hovering around and taking pot shots.

So, what do you think? So far I have had good results with this list in 5th and a win in 6th with a 2100pt version. I take Zahndrehk as he is 5pts more than a standard overlord with the same equipment but gets so much more. I will always take the Destroyers and Monolith as they are some of my favourite Necron units. The Stalker adds so much to the army and has become a big threat to some of my local group because of its ability to make my army twin linked. I have also found units of 15 warriors are much more reliable than 10 but a unit of 2o is just a points waste, 15 are around long enough, and cheap enough to just sit around taking pot shots.

So comments welcome, will write up my first battle report after tomorrow night!

New 40K Flyers

Morning folks,

These have been floating around since lunchtime yesterday, but I thought I'd share here for people who don't check the regular / un-mobile friendly blogs and sites (and also, chime in with some witty opinions...)

Images are taken from: HERO's Gaming Blog

Space Marine Stormtalon

I know there's a lot of people who really don't like this model, and initially I was put off. Everyone disliked the Stormraven on it's reveal too. Personally though, I like both models and I especially LOVE the idea of a SM flyer gunship. I'm not sure what role it will have in comparison to the cheaper, lighter armoured Land Speeder, but we'll see.
The only downside here is according to what people have said about the rules, it will only be for Codex: Space Marines for the time being. Which means my Dark Angels army, and people at the club who have Blood Angels and Space Wolves will miss out on this for the time being.

Necron Doom Scythe / Night Scythe

This is pretty much as it is in the codex. I'm not massively keen on the "Flying Croissant" look, but that's the Necron visual style of Battlefleet Gothic ships after all. I do like the fact that it's a dual kit though, the annoyance for me with the Dark Eldar fighter is that it only gives you the Razorwing, not the Void Raven (however, this could be to do with the AV difference).

Ork Burna Bomma / Dakka Jet / Blitza Bomma

Now then, these Ork planes, I love. The only downside is that I already have 2 Fighta-Bommas made up at home so probabl won't be buying these. The upside is that I can now use my Fighta-Bomma conversions in normal games of 40K! My only hope is that they're in the Fast Attack slot, rather than Heavy Support competing with Battlewagons, Kans and Dreads.

Hopefully this is the first of many flyer additions into 40k. I loved the Valkyrie model when that came out, so much so that I bought 3, and love seeing them on the table. The rules don't really suit Flyers at the moment though, so hopefully 6th ed will add another layer onto this. But yeah - more flyers for all the races please!!

What do you guys all reckon to these? Looking forward to seeing them on the table and more coming for other races?

Over and out,
SB

Back in business - Dark Eldar, Necrons, Squats and new Eldar army!

Morning all,

Been a while since I had the time or energy to blog about anything. However, work and personal life has chilled out a bit in the last day or so. Which means here comes a blog about what I've been doing over the last few months.

Brotherhood of the Forge
Last summer I spent some pennies on a fair amount of Dwarf boxsets and bits in order to finalise my Sisters of Battle / Squat army. I posted stuff up about these a while ago: HERE

These guys are all sanded and ready to be sprayed up, along with an Immolator. But again, I've just not had the time to get them done.

Dark Eldar
From the Warboot in November I "rescued" a big horde of Dark Eldar models. I spent most of Xmas holidays high on fumes stripping the paint off of them: HERE

In the mean time, I managed to convert up some more Blasters (splinter rifles with torment grenade launcher bulbs on the end) and tidy up 3 Vypers to use as Venoms.

Necrons
As well as the Dark Eldar stuff, I had a big backlog of Necron stuff that I'd gotten for Xmas that needed to be built and sorted.

10 Immortals with Tesla Carbines, 5 Lychguard with shields, Imotekh the Stormlord, Trazyn the Infinte and a Cryptek.

After I'd done these, I had a Ghost Ark which was one of the most time consuming kits I'd done for a while. As well as a Catacomb Command Barge / Annihalation Barge which very nicely can swap between each if you don't glue stuff. And since I've not been able to paint / play with it yet, it gives me the option to choose which I prefer.

Eldar
Around the end of February, I bought the remnants of an Eldar army off another club member who has stopped playing 40k.

This has kept me busy over the last 2 months, chipping away where I can at building, repairing and converting stuff.

In all, the army consists of:
- Farseer
- 6 War Walkers
- 3 Wave Serpents
- 1 Falcon
- 20 Dire Avengers
- 6 Jetbikes

I've got a few missing bits here and there, which I'm scouring eBay to get hold of. I'm also planning on converting the Jetbikes into Dire Avenger style riders, as opposed to the really old and pants looking Guardians riding them.

The plan is also to convert another Jetbike rider into an Autarch with Power Weapon, so I've got a 2nd HQ choice and to pad out my points a bit more.

I've not done a list yet, so I don't know exactly how many points I have of the Eldar. All I know is that I'm after a unit to ride in the 3rd Wave Serpent. Fire Dragons maybe? Who knows... Eldar is still really new to me and I'm having a "I want everything" moment.

I'm also yet to decide on a colour scheme for the army. Red is a no, no because of my Khorne Daemons. Green is also bad because of Orks and Dark Angels. Blue I'm also not keen on as I want the Dire Avengers to stand out, and also it's too close to my Dark Eldar army.

At the moment, I'm thinking about a Yme-Loc craftworld, but that could be another blog post entirely!

---------------------

So that's me for now. Baby Badger is due any time now, so I'm sure just as I've escaped one thing stopping me from hobbying, I'll have another reason to neglect my plastic crack mountain.

Cheers,
SB

Festive Projects

Morning all,

So pretty soon, it'll be Xmas and everyone will (hopefully) be getting some time off work and unwrapping lots of hobby goodies that are under the tree. Whilst I was assembling some dwarfs last night, I started thinking about what I'm going to try to get done whilst I'm off work.

1. Brotherhood of the Forge
I've made a fair bit of progress with these, as they've been sat in a box for the last 5 months whilst my Dark Angels and Chaos Daemons were top priority.

So far I've got Arch Confessor Kyrinov made and 6 Crusader Henchmen. Last night I got half way through a 5 man Dominion squad before I called it a night. The thing I loved about these guys first time round was how quick they were to paint. Dark colours, mostly metal armour and minimal amounts of skin on show - meaning that they *should* be quick to get finished so I can get some use out of the army with the WD codex.

I've got the following to assemble, spray and paint:
- 10 Seraphim
- 20 Battle Brothers
- 1 Command Squad
- 1 Saint Celstine
- 1 Immolator

2. Dark Eldar
Next up (not necessarily in priority order...) is a load of Dark Eldar bits I traded some LOTR stuff for at the last Warboot event. I've got 40 old style Kabalite warriors (4 units of 10 warriors, 1 Splinter cannon and Sybarite in each) and 5 metal Wyches to strip down and paint.

What interests me most here, is whether or not my Kabal's Ice Blue armour scheme will look any good on the older models. The new Kabalite warriors armour tends have more defined layers that curve outwards, whereas the older models have more curved inwards, closely layered armour. It'll be interesting to see anyway, and allows me to heavily bulk out my Dark Eldar with more Kabalite warriors, which are one of my favourite units in the book.

I've got the following to strip, spray and paint:
- 40 Kabalite Warriors
- 5 Wyches (to be Hekatrix bloodbrides)
- 3 Venoms

3. Necrons
Here's hoping Father Christmas brings me the Necron stuff I've asked for, if not, I've got 2 boxes of Immortals sat under the tree that I bought at the start of this month. I'm not too sure what to arm my new Immortals with, whether to go the traditional Gauss Blaster route and replace / bulk up my Metal units, or to give Tesla carbines a try.

On top of that, I should have the two released Necron special characters, some Lychguard (not sure whether I'll convert these to Crypteks yet though) and a Ghost Ark. At first, I was really miffed off with the Necron codex, but now I'm interested in how the new units will work and how it'll change the dynamic of an army I've had since I first started 40k.

Also on the topic of Necrons, I've been debating repainting the army or at the very least, washing them. They were done pre-Badab Black days and when I get them out compared to my more recently painted models, they're showing their age. It would also let me add a bit more variety to the other Necron armies I've seen around.

4. Bretonnians
These have been an ongoing project for the last 4 or 5 years and they're still irritating me to this day. I really would like to play more Warhammer Fantasy and get some use out of the army, but I have zero desire to paint them. With a few members of the club expressing more interest in playing Fantasy, maybe it'll give me a kick up the backside

To paint:
- 8 Grail Knights
- 5 Mounted Yeomen
- Grail Reliquae and 20 Battle Pilgrims
- Mounted Damsel
- Damsel on foot
- 3 Pegasus Knights

5. Scenery
Last on the list to do is to deal with some scenery I've bought over the last year from eBay. I think I've got about 20 - 30 trees dumped in a box which are all just loose standing, but after going to Stockport NWGC for a tourney last month, I really liked the way they've done the trees.

Basically it's a kidney shaped piece of hardboard, with 3 60mm (ish) holes cut into it. Take the hole piece you've cut out, glue the tree to that, then glue a piece of stiffened card underneath the hole you've drilled (so you can pick it up as 1 piece) and then spray and paint.

It looked really good and meant you could easily shift the trees if you needed to, as well as meaning trees can be left loose for easy storage and mixed and matched between each base.

The only problem is just the time it takes to do all of that, maybe with some help from a local DIY expert (i.e. My Dad) the job will get done a bit quicker.

So that's it for my plans folks. I highly doubt any of it will get done, but it's worth listing down what you want to aim for...

So, what are you guys planning to get up to hobbywise over the Xmas period?

SB

Rules Debate: Necrons "Entropic Strike"

Morning folks,

I was planning on writing up my initial thoughts on the new Necron codex after my first game last night, then logged on to find BOLS talking about Scarabs and the "Entropic Strike" special rule.

This cropped up in my game last night, and I thought I'd discuss my point of view on it and how we handled it. On the flip side, if other MAWS members could read this and make a decision, we can add it our MAWS FAQ, until an actual FAQ is released.

So here's the quote from BOLS today:

Entropic Strike Timing
Now Entropic Strike is nasty, no one is disputing that.  The real question comes down to exactly HOW NASTY did Matthew Ward intend for it to be.  Here is the key rule quote in question:

"For each hit a vehicle or model suffers with this special rule, roll a D6. For each result of 4+, it immediately loses 1 point of armor value from all facings.  If a vehicle is reduced to Armour 0 on any facing, it is immediately destroyed"

So the million dollar question is: Exactly when does the reduced armour values go into effect - before, or after you roll for penetrations on the initial set of hits inflicted in assault?

Here is an example.  An innocent Land Raider is sleeping peacefully in a meadow when 4 bases of Scarabs slam into it.  They inflict 20 automatic hits (it was sleeping peacefully remember), ten of which activate the Entropic Strike ability on a 4+.  Do you:
a) Resolve the 20 hits at S:3+ D6 vs AV:14 (the Land Raider will live), then it's AV is immediately lowered to 4/4/4
b) Resolve the 20 hits at S:3+D6 vs AV:4 (the Land Raider is toast)

Either of these is possible based on whether Ward intends Entropic Strike to either a) weaken units so they will be crippled and easily picked off by later units, or b) be bloodcurdling to all vehicles in the game. Luckily this is an easy black and white decision, that needs to be FAQed one way or the other.

 Now. Here's the way I see it.

Step 1. You roll to hit the vehicle in question.
Step 2. Out of those "To Hit" rolls, roll that number and find out how many Entropic Strikes were successful (4+)
Step 3. "For each result of a 4+, it IMMEDIATELY loses 1 point of armour value from all facings". Quoted directly from the rule.
Step 4. Roll to penetrate against this lower amount with all the "To Hit" dice that succeeded.

True it's harsh if you're the one who didn't move your Land Raider or deal with the Scarabs when you had chance, but the key word there is "immediately".

The argument for me there is when exactly does the Entropic Strike get rolled for. To me, it's pretty straight forward, as soon as it's hit by an Entropic Strike, you roll to see whether the E.S. activates and then go on the modified armour.

It's not a case of "When does the reduced armour value kick in?", the real question is "When do you roll for Entropic Strike?", which - to me - is straight after a vehicle takes a hit from a Scarab base. If you've activated the Entropic Strike, then the vehicle immediately loses the armour values.

What do MAWS folk think about this?

Cheers,
SB

Beer-Hammer 40,000 at Nottingham

Morning all,

It's took me a few days to recover from it, but over last weekend the 40k'ers at MAWS went to Warhammer World in Nottingham, to drink copious amounts of alcohol and play a 500pt 1 day Cup - dubbed the Beerhammer Cup.  The aim was simple - to play 1 game against each player, whilst recovering from pre-game drinking the night before.

My army idea was simple, whatever will take the least space as possible in my bag. I had a plastic tub which, if the list couldn't fit inside of, it needed to be changed. Luckily the 500pt Necron list I'd used a few weeks ago was small in number and (with a bit of help) just managed to get in the tub.

It weighed in as follows:
10 Necron Warriors
2 x 2 Units of Destroyers
2 x 1 Unit of Tomb Spyders with Particle Projector.

Lowe and behold, after finding out everyone's forces, it seems it was the Old Blood against the New Kids. Three 3rd edition Codexes - Necrons, Dark Eldar and Daemonhunters, playing off against 2 of the newest codexes -Blood Angels and Tyranids.

Game #1
So, after a fair bit of messing about with tables at Warhammer World, we got into the gaming and I kicked the competition off playing against Angryman's Tyranids:

The list was something along the lines of:
2 x 1 Zoanthropes
2 Hive Guard
2 x 20 Gaunts with Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands

This was the game I was dreading. The sheer amount of Gaunts on the table, backed up by High S and Low AP killy stuff that was there.

Fortunately, my Destroyers managed to snipe one of the Hive Guard early on, took out the Zoanthropes a bit later on and then the Gaunts struggled for Synapse.

Combine that with failing an assault charging Necrons into, then being run down by an assaulting Tomb Spyder as they fled.

Result: Win

Game #2

Game 2 was against Blood Angels (if I remember rightly), the new kids on the block. No vehicles, but focus on the numbers:
5 Man Tactical Squad
2 x 5 man Devastators with lots of weapons
4 Jumppack Death Company with 2 Power Weapons

We played a Capture and Control mission, 1 home objective each.

Thanks to an absolute ton of cover saves from AP2 weaponry, and extremely poor rolling by both of us for shooting, we played out to a draw. I held my Objective, the Blood Angels held theirs.

Result - Draw

Game #3
Game 3 was the battle of the 3rd Ed Codexes. Necrons v Dark Eldar. Now, this is the first time I can remember playing against Dark Eldar and I really enjoy playing against them since they're rare to see.

The list was along the lines of:
Drachon
2 x 10 Warriors in Raiders
Ravager

The mission was again Capture and Control, this time with Dawn of War deployment. The Dark Eldar, being Dark Eldar, hoped to cripple the 1 unit of Necron warriors on the board in the first turn. Unfortunately, thanks to a lot of cover saves on my part from Dark Lances.

Unfortunately, whilst holding my own, the amount of Dark Lances and Disintegrator (?) shots tore into my Warriors and made the army phase out.

This was after a first 2 turns where I managed to destroy 2 of the 3 paper planes in the Dark Eldar army, forcing them to foot slog it over to the Necrons.

Result: Loss via Phaseout

Game #4

Again, another battle of the third edition Codexes, this time Daemonhunters were the opposition. Straken was the opponent, and he chose to use an all or nothing army of Deep Striking Grey Knights with a squad of Inquisition Storm Troopers.

Stormtroopers with 2 Meltas in a Rhino
2 x 5 Grey Knights Deepstriking with Incinerators(?)

The game was Capture and Control, 1 "home" objective each. The Stormrooper Rhino parked in cover, with the Destroyers looking for an easy kill. Unforunately, the Rhino just would not stop making successful cover saves from penetrating hits.

Unlucky for Straken, both Grey Knight units came down in different turns, so couldn't overwhelm the Necrons and were picked off.

It took a while, but eventually the remaining Destroyers managed to shift the Rhino and Stormtroopers from the objective, to give the Necrons a 1-0 victory.

Result: Victory

Final Results

So with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss to my name, I think the Necrons gave a good show for their money, by ending up on 7 points putting me in 2nd place.

1st place went to Brother Captain Ventris with his Dark Eldar army, through a combination of clever play and taking advantage of everyone's lack of knowledge of Dark Eldar! Combined with the fact his Dark Eldar are yet to lose a game at the club, it's well deserved win.

1st Place - 8pts - Brother-Captain Ventris (Dark Eldar)
2nd Place - 7pts - SuicideBadger (Necrons)
3rd Place - 5pts - Sanguinius (Blood Angels)
3rd Place - 5pts - Angryman (Tyranids)
5th Place - 1pts - Col.Straken (Daemonhunters)

It was a really fun contest, and I really enjoy the smaller scale games where everything hangs on a knife edges - less of a war of attrition.

Here's looking forward to the Combat Patrol Cup in November / December!

Peace,
SB

Badger's Big Update - Part 1 - Black Wash

Hi everyone,

As you've probably noticed, the blog has been a bit bare for a while now, due mostly to members being pretty busy or in the middle of projects that aren't really ready to be posted.... Or in my case, forgetting to take pictures of models I've painted!

I've had some form of Man Flu for the past week and it decided to go full on attack mode on my painting backlog. I ended Sunday feeling better and also chipping away at the dreaded painting Backlog.

So - the aim is, each day I'll post a unit or project that I had worked on over the weekend, chat about it pretty quick and show off some pictures.

First up, as those of you who've seen my armies on the table or on this blog, I'm a massive supporter of Badab Black wash. Considering the busy working patterns I can go through, as well as y'know, attempting to have a personal life, when I get chance to paint, I want to get a job done. Badab Black saved my life!

On that topic, I found myself painting 2 plastic Necron Immortals that had been sat on my desk for a looooong long while. I think I made them about 18 months ago - using a Destroyer Torso, Head and Gun on a normal Warrior's legs.

You used to be able to get hold of extremely cheap unboxed Necrons Destroyers on eBay and the aim was to make a 2nd squad of Immortals using these guys as the basis.

So here they are:

Whilst painting them though, I had them next to newer things I'd painted using Badab Black wash. Whereas my original Necrons pre-date that, (Boltgun Metal drybrush, reset Black areas and then Snot Green the pipes), so I decided to go over them with a Black Wash as tester models for the Necron army.

Suffice to say, I was happy with the result. It blended in some patchy drybrushing and then dulled them so they were more "fitting" of the 40k Universe.

That then got me thinking of my Guard army, who I set the Paintscheme for about 6 years ago when I first got into 40k. They take an absolute AGE to paint since it all relies on layering the cloth, resetting large Black areas and multiple skin coats.

So I attacked some rarely used Guard models to see what my scheme would look like with the Black Wash:



Original Guardsman Paintscheme



Guardsman Post-Black Wash

Again, I was really impressed by the result of this, so I went over a box of the rarely used Guardsmen (Metal Models) as the first stage of the project.

So - what do you guys think? I'm aiming to buy a ton of Black Wash over the next few weeks and go over the Necrons and Guard to really Grime them down and match my other armies. After all... Nothing is ever factory fresh in the 40k universe!

Expect part 2 tomorrow :)

Peace,
SB

[Necrons] Tomb Stalker

So FW are releasing a new unit for the Necron army called the Tomb Stalker. I was hoping that it may make it into the new codex, but I can't see them releasing a resin version of a model now, then a kit for it in 18 months (hopefully) time.

Anyway, here's the model itself:

I really love the whole Steel centipede thing that's going on. Feel like like really fits with the Necron style as well. Plus it reminds me a bit of a Pokemon (although I can't remember which one...)

Experimental rules can be found for it here, where it takes up a Heavy Support choice: Forge World - Necron Tomb Stalker

So waddya think? Can I bring it out to play? Pretty please???

SB

[Necrons] 5th Edition Revisions - Necron Lords

Morning all,

I was hoping to do an article on my first game of Spearhead over the weekend, but unfortunately I had to pull out of playing. So I thought I'd try to continue this series on what would be good to see in terms of a 5th Edition Necron Codex.

In this article, I'll discuss the rumoured changes to the only official HQ unit in the Necron Codex - the Necron Lord.

The Choices

Firstly, there is massive debate over whether there will be a system of Silver, Gold and Platinum Lord choices in the Codex. Personally, I think this is a bit of a backwards Step that GW won't take. It harks back to the old situation we had with Space Marine Captains and Commanders, Chaos Lieutenants and Lords, Witch Hunter Palantines and Cannonness.

The proposed idea is:
- Silver Lord, S and T 4 with 2 Wounds and 2 Attacks.
- Gold Lord, S and T5 with 3 wounds and 3 Attacks.
- Platinum Lord, supposedly wears a C'Tan suit and is a toned down version of old C'Tan.

To me, the Silver Lord is completely un-necessary and as I say, harks back to an older, less streamlined edition. Nowadays the key is "That's the official model, that's what rules it uses".

I personally think it will be a case of we get a Necron Lord and a C'Tan choice. Equivalent to how the Chaos Marines have a Chaos Lord and a Daemon Prince. This article is about how the Necron Lord will be changed in 5th edition so...

Stats
I would guess that the Necron Lord will stay mostly untouched in terms of the profile. First and foremost, the Lord is a Support Unit but his stats match, or better some Marine style HQ units, so it's tempting what to do with him.

Wargear
Now that the usual Armoury / Wargear section of the books have been removed, I feel the Necron Lord will lose a lot of their options around, especially now with the trend that most upgrades tend to remove a pistol / close combat weapon.

I think the likely starting wargear for the Lord will be the Staff of Light along with a "Free Hand". The freehand will be able to take one of the following:

- Resurrection Orb, same as currently. Will allow Feel No Pain (We'll Be Back updated) to be used regardless of situation, within usual distance.

- Gauss Flamer? This would be a cool option to see on the Necron Lord, one of the only models to be able to carry this and thin out some hordes or flush from cover. I'm thinking it's a Wrist mounted weapon - if you can imagine the Super Battle Droids from Star Wars... you'll see what I mean.

- Veil of Darkness. I would say this offers a cover save or Night fighting to the units, to avoid a Battlecannon shot blowing up the unit. I've got a feeling the Deep Strike use of this will be removed.

- Chrono-heart: A bit of a combination of Chronometron and Gaze of Flames from the current Codex. Reduces the threat of an easy Assault on a Necron unit.

Then we talk about the options to upgrade the Close Combat weapons:

- Staff of Light: Is as standard and how it is in the Codex.

- Warscythe: Make it more like the Pariahs with the built in Gauss Blaster. I do like this weapon though...

- Flayer Claws: Either 1, or a pair. Similar to Lightning Claws with with a twist?

Along with this, Invulnerable Saves are pretty much "As Standard" with most HQs. I think the likelihood is a built in Phase Shifter, with 4+ Inv, maybe drop this down to a 5+ Inv.

I'd also be some Movement options like:
- Destroyer Body: Move like a Jetbike
- Spyder Body: Attacks like a Monstrous Creature, loses Independent Character?
- Pariah Gene: Lord gains Fleet and Furious Charge?

I'm a bit short on ideas for Movement options. I've seen plenty of Spyder Body conversions knocking around that prompted the idea for Spyder body idea. The Pariah Gene option just makes me base the idea around changes to Pariah's I'd like to see.

Build Unlocking
The main thing as a support unit that the Necron Lord is, would be to unlock new army builds in what is a stale Troop section for the Necron army.

- Lord on Destroyer Body: Similar to Space marine captain on Bike. 1 unit of Destroyers become Troop choices.
- Flayer Lord: All Flayed Ones become troops.
- As standard: 1 unit of Immortals becomes Troops.
- Pariah Gene: 1 unit of Pariahs become Troops.

Conclusion
A lot of this is wish listing, ideas bouncing around in my head and a fair bit of emptying my Brain into the Blog Article.

What do you guys think? Any other ideas you may have bouncing around, or any critiscisms of what I've thought up?

SB

[Battle Report] Necrons v Eldar 1500pts

Afternoon all,

On Monday night, myself and Angryman needed a break from our respective "first choice" armies, and from the standard Tournament style of gaming. So we decided to play a 1,500pt game from the Battle Missions book - using armies we've not played for a long time in my case, or barely at all with him.

The Lists
I quickly learnt when trying to write a 1,500pt list for the Necrons that I don't get many models on the table - especially when I'm so used to playing as the Orks. All I knew is, I wanted to jump around the table a bit and keep the Eldar on their toes.

Seethreepio, Necron Lord: Staff of Light, Veil of Darkness, Phase Shifter
ArtooDetoo, Necron Lord: Staff of Light, Resurrection Orb, Phase Shifter
5 Immortals
3 x 11 Necron Warriors
3 Necron Destroyers
Monolith

The Eldar were something along the lines of:
Farseer
Wraithlord
3 War Walkers
5 Fire Dragons in a Falcon
10 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent
13 Guardians with Starcannon Weapon Platform
12 Guardians with Starcannon Weapon Platform
2 Vypers

Since we'd played the Rulebook missions to death, we decided we would play a random scenario from the Battle Missions book and ended up with "Mobile Defence Force" which we had 5 objectives.

Only half of the Eldar army could deploy on the table - Infantry, Walkers and Monstrous Creatures - everything else (including units in a Dedicated Transport vehicle) would have to be kept in reserve. However, the Eldar units could begin to roll for reserves from the first turn.

Set Up
Objectives were split around the board fairly evenly, and the scenario called for the Eldar to deploy first. So the 2 Guardian Units, Farseer, War Walkers and Wraithlord on the board. These guys could set up anywhere in the Eldar half of the board, and each Guardian unit started on an objective tag-teamed with the Warwalkers at 1 objective and the Wraithlord at the other.

My Necrons deployed 1 unit of Warriors on a right side Objective, 1 unit near the far left objective with the Res Orb Lord and the Immortals with Veil of Darkness Lord out of sight. The Destroyers set up towards the left hand board edge, ready to square up to the War Walkers. The Monolith and 3rd Warrior squad remained in reserve.

I will forewarn readers. My memory of the game is patchy at best so forgive me if some of the details are a bit vague.

Turn 1
Necrons:
First turn went to the Crons. The Lord and the Immortals Veil of Darkness'd to near the middle Guardian squad and War Walkers, ready to unleash a torrent of fire on the Central objective. The Destroyers also moved up the field to target the War Walkers with their Gauss Cannons.

The middle Warrior squad, shot the middle Guardian squad, forcing them to take a Leadership test which they passed. Whilst the Destroyers, Immortals and Lord attacked the War Walkers destroying 2 of them.

Eldar:
The Eldar reserves began to show up on turn 1 leading the charge with a Vyper and the Dire Avengers in their Wave Serpent showing up.

Retaliation was swift for the Eldar - focusing their attacks on the Destroyer unit. The Farseer Doomed the unit, then Guided his supporting Wraithlord. Between the firepower that got put out from those units, plus the Vyper that arrived, the Unit of Destroyers was killed and could then not attempt a WBB roll.

Objectives: 2 - 1 to the Eldar

Turn 2:

Necrons:
No sign of the Monolith and Warriors so far. Warriors with the Res Orb Lord moved up the field to rapid fire the middle Guardians. The Immortals and Lord moved closer towards the central building - with the War Walkers and Guardians.

In the shooting phase, the Middle Warriors managed to cause the Middle Guardians to flee and whittled them under half strength in the process meaning they're unable to rally. The Immortals and the Lord attacked the War Walker. The Left Warriors managed to cause the Farseer and Guardians to take a Leadership but they easily passed.

In the assault phase, the Immortals and the Lord charged into the remaining War Walker and dispatched it, losing 1 Immortal in the process.

Eldar:
I think no reserves this turn, but the Dire Avengers and Vyper moved up the field towards the Left Objective. The Fleeing Guardians continue to run off the board, but were able to take some pot shots at the Lord and Immortals forcing one down.

The Guardians and Wraithlord began to hammer the Left unit of Warriors through a Doom / Guide combo, forcing about 4 of them to be needing WBB rolls next turn.

Turn 3:

Necrons:
Still no sign of the Monolith.. the Lords begin to grow Impatient. The Immortals and the Lord move into cover in the middle building. The Middle warriors move up towards the middle objective but remaining Chain-like leaving a man behind sat on the back objective. The far left Warriors leave the safety of their Cover to begin moving out towards the objective.

In the shooting phase the Lord and Immortals peppers the Farseer's squad with shots, forcing another Leadership test which he managed to pass. The Warriors shot at the Dire Avengers in their Transport but were out of range.

Eldar:
The 2nd Vyper showed up this turn and Zoomed onto the board alongside it's Twin. The Dire Avengers moved up to camp near the Left Objective. The Fire Dragons in their Falcon also showed up and moved into position to reinforce the Eldar home objective.

During shooting, another 2 Immortals went down from Guardian fire and the Farseer doomed the left Necron warriors and Guided the Wraithlord. These all combined to fire on the Warrior squad, who managed (through lots of cover saves from around the table) to only take a few to go down for WBB - after all but 1 of them stood up with WBB last turn.

The Dire Avengers, having jumped out of their Transport also attempted to Bladestorm the Necron Warriors, forcing 4 to WBB, after they passed their Leadership Test.

Turn 4:

Necrons: Now we're talking. The Monolith and Warriors showed up, managing by an Inch, not to scatter off the table, after deploying near the Eldar home objective. The Reserve Warriors then walked out from the Portal, ready to rapid fire anything nearby.

The Immortals and Lord secured their central position, the Middle warriors consolidated back to their objective and the Left Warriors edged out towards the Eldar Wave Serpent.

Necron shooting was pretty feeble... the remaining Immortals shot the Farseer and Guardians, causing a few wounds but they once again stood fast. The Warriors coming through the Monolith opened up whatever fire they could on the Wraithlord causing 1 Wound, followed by the Flux Arcs off the Monolith causing another Wound.

The Left Warriors retaliated at the Dire Avengers, killing off several of them, but they followed the Farseer's example and stood firm.

The Wraithlord then charged into the Warriors that emerged from the Monolith and crushed 2 of them. They passed their Leadership test and remained Resolute.

Turn 5:

Necrons:
The Monolith moved around the Eldar objective and transported through the Warriors that were locked in Combat with the Wraithlord unable to hurt him by conventional means.

The Immortals and the Lord shot again at the Farseer Guardians picking off more of them. The Flux arcs off the Monolith managed to wipe out more of the Guardians and again they did not run. The tradeoff between Warriors and Dire Avengers resulted in nothing much and the rest of the shooting in the army slowly fizzled out.

Eldar:
The 2 Vypers began their dash towards my Home objective, hoping to contest it in the hope the game went to a 6th or 7th Turn. They would at least be 1 turn away. The Fire Dragons leapt from their Falcon with the Monolith in their sights. The Wraithlord began to move through cover to stop the Monolith and Warriors.

However, the Fire Dragons were unable to dent the giant Necron vehicle and were then left open to attack next turn. The Guardians shot at the Reserve Warriors. The Dire Avengers Wave Serpent failed to do any damage to the Leftside Warriors.

At this point: 1 - 0 to the Necrons....

Lowe and behold, we rolled for a Turn 6...

Turn 6:

Necrons:
The Monolith remained where it was in order to fire again. The Warriors edged forwards but were outside of distance of the Objective.

The Monolith and Reserve Warriors managed to wipe out the remaining Guardians and remove the Farseer's final wound (previous were lost from Perils of the Warp) and the Fire Dragons, also immobilising the Dragons Falcon.

The remaining 2 Warrior squads attempted to target a Vyper each, 1 becoming Stunned for the next turn and the other successfully passing it's cover saves.

Eldar:
The remaining Vyper moved to within Contesting distance of the Home Necron objective and the Wraithlord failed his Wraithsight test.

The Dire Avengers transport tried to thin the Left Warriors out and only managed to kill 1 Warrior and that was all the shooting for the Eldar force!

The deciding roll would be whether there was a Turn 7.... And alas No..

Final Result
Drawn Game: 3 Contested Objectives, 2 Empty Objectives.

This was a reeeeally close game between two very mobile, heavily shooting focused armies and it could have swung either way. Both of us enjoyed playing new armies, as it's a welcome change from Hordes of 5/6+ save Boyz and Gaunts and I could rely on more of my units not dying!

It was also fun to play against an Eldar army, as I'd not played against one for a while. I'd really forgotten the Synergy they need to play well as an army - makes me consider wanting to start them at a Combat Patrol level.

I may have got some of the events in the Battle Report out of sequence, so apologies. I really need to take a notepad with me in future and jot down things that are happening each turn!

Until next week readers!

SB

[Necrons] 5th Edition Revisions - Special Rules

Morning all,

Today I've been itching to do a Necron article, but haven't played with them for a while so didn't fancy doing a unit breakdown like my Orks. Instead, I thought I would address some of the things I would like to be seen done to the Necron Codex when it eventually gets updated for 5th Edition.

I think 1 article to cover this will be way too big, so I'm going to split them by Force Organisation and firstly for this article, the army as a whole.

We'll Be Back
We'll Be Back (WBB) has often been a source of misclarification amongst Necron players and their opponents and in my opinion needs simplifying heavily. Now to be clear, I have no issue with how it works currently, save for some clarification to stop people coming up with things like this:

The WBB rules only say if it's Double the Toughness of the Necron. Not if it's over Double their Toughness.

 The main problem I feel that is caused by WBB is that it acts out of sequence and can lead to more hassle than is necessary.

In the 5th edition codex, there is one real solution that everyone is pointing to - which is give them Feel No Pain, which I feel is a valid solution to solving the issues with WBB, as well as streamlining playing the Necrons.

Phase Out
Phase out is another touchy subject amongst Necron players, but has kind of been boostered and at the same time hindered by 5th edition play. Now with more emphasis on Necron Warriors, Phase Out numbers are higher.

However, Monoliths and C'Tan have been brought in to cover weaknesses in the army thus sapping valuable numbers from your Phase Out amount.

Personally, I can see Phase Out being removed entirely from the 5th edition codex, or at a push to try and still have this draw back, maybe an army wide Leadership test - like Kill Team's Bottle Test.

Gauss Weaponry
Gauss got completely bashed in 5th edition, with vehicles becoming significantly harder to kill, along with not being able to be killed from glancing hits (unless absolutely hammered with shots). Whilst this then lead to a lot of the Necron's problem solving solutions then having to be re-thought.

This combined with the ineffective nature of Heavy Destroyers and reliance on C'Tans for example, meant that the Necrons slowly get shelved.

There are 2 ways I can see to mitigate this:

#1 - The Simplest. Gauss Weapons inflicing Glancing Hits will be at -1, rather than -2 on the damage table.

#2 - Gauss Weapons gain Rending.

Both are good options in my view, I feel making them Rending would also solve some of the Necron issues in dealing with 2+ and 3+ saves, but Army-wide Rending I think would attact the beard and cheese that lives on some message boards into pimping this army out.

-1 instead of -2 for Glancing hits on the Damage Table will do me nicely thank you!

Additions in 5th 
- Stubborn
Since Assaults in 5th edition got extremely tough, Necrons suffer... a LOT. One of the ways to get around this, I think would be by making them Stubborn, as opposed to Fearless.

Stubborn is a rule I don't think gets used often enough, and is a great, great help. For example, my Ogryn unit with Lord Commisar that is Stubborn LD10, I personally believe, is miles better than being Fearless.

Afterall, with Stubborn, there is still a chance the Necrons will flee, just a very small chance - as it should be for Evil Robots who just want to Harvest.


Slow and Purposeful
This is one that has caused controversy for a while now, but a lot of people are saying Necrons will likely get Slow and Purposeful USR to combat all these new found abilities. This is something I can take really, as the proposed changes are awesome.

The only thing I do not like however, is basing an entire army around a random movement value, but if it comes to it, I'm sure there will be plenty of new options to mitigate the 'Crons walking anywhere.


Conclusion
I'm going to try and cover each part of the Force Org chart over the next week or so, to discuss changes in 5th edition - both rumoured and my own ideas - and see what you guys think.

Opinions anyone?

SB

[Necrons] Converting Plastic Tomb Spyders

Hey all,

I was originally going to go through some of my new Imperial Guard stuff today, but I forgot to take the pictures last night - D'oh!

So instead, looking through what I do have pictures for, I thought I would show off my converted Necron Tomb Spyders, talk a bit about them and see what people think.

These guys were made around 2 or 3 years ago, in the run up to a tournament, when I was hoping to try out other Necron units in the codex that I didn't have access to. However, as with most hobby moments for me, money was low and rather than pay £24 for 2 Tomb Spyders, I'd have a go at converting some much easier to assemble, paint and maintain from destruction Plastic Tomb Spyders.

The first and most important thing to get across really, was to signify these are Tomb Spyders, as opposed to some new form of Destroyer construct. I tried to reinforce this by putting some Scarabs on the bases, following the Tomb Spyder like some weird mechanical lost puppies. It also adds a bit more bulk to the model, rather than having an empty base like the Destroyers.

I wanted the Tomb Spyders to feel less like mechanical Beetles and more like a kind of Necron medic destroyer. So I used the Torso of the Destroyer, with a standard Necron Warrior head, to ensure they're visually different to the Destroyers.

The bodies and head were to remain like Necron Warriors / Destroyers to reinforce this link that they're Necron surgeons or repair-crons, rather than the usual Tomb Spyders.

One of the reasons Necron players have for taking Tomb Spyders is that they also count as Monstrous Creatures and can pack a punch in close combat. I made the Claw to try and look like a giant pincer, using the Scythe blades from some Warhammer Fantasy Zombies I had in my Bitz box.

I cut the blade where it joined the staff, and glued these onto a Necron Warrior non-Gun arm, at the wrist. That way, they've got what is effectively a power klaw, to count towards their monstrous creature status.

Normally people don't take the Particle Projector option for the Tomb Spyders because of their dodgy Ballistic Skill, however, I modelled mine so that I can take them as an option, by using a trimmed down Warrior Gauss Gun.

This fashioned some kind of Gauss Pistol weapon that was different enough looking from the other Necron guns to be able to represent the Particle Projector - albeit the fact it's a 3 shot weapon.

This is an overall shot of the 2 Spyders I made, costing me a total of £12 for both models, thanks to a very good deal from eBay at the time.

As usual - comments, critiscism and cakes are welcome.

SB.

[FTW] Unifying and Theming your Armies

Hey all,

Recieved an email from Ron at FTW not long ago, with the topic of this month's collaborative post. This time we're going to be talking about how we theme and unify our armies outside of what units are actually in the force.

For me, there's 3 areas we can do this in - Painting, Converting and Basing and I feel all 3 are in my Ork force, but I'll try and chop some other armies in there to spice things up.

Painting
The first and most obvious personally is the painting work undertaken on the army - whether it's Eavy Metal, Golden Daemon winning standard, or something as simple as a variant colour scheme.

I'd then say there's 3 sub-categories inside of painting that can define an army theme - Paint Scheme, Painting Method and Colour Palette.

Paint Scheme

First off, the paint scheme chosen by the player can tell as much of a backstory to knowledgable 40k players as could a 100 word piece of background fluff. From something as simple as the colour your paint your Space Marines, generally signifies their chapter or founding chapter, or what type of Ork clan you wish to play as.

This is my Looted Boom-wagon, painted in lucky Deffskullz blue, to match to rest of my force, showing their heavy focus on looting equipment, vehicles and their general luckiness on the tabletop!

Painting Methods
Once you've picked your overall scheme, it then comes to how you paint your army. An honourable Marine or Eldar army will obviously be highly polished, very cleanly layered and highlighted, whereas an army mid-conflict or a grimey evil army will be less cleanly painted and use more washes and drybrushing.

This is my Necron army, the Soul Reavers, who I wanted to look like standard Necrons, however when painting them I used heavy drybrushing to try and emphasise these are ancient robots who've slumbered for a long, long time and awoken. Time has taken it's toll on their shiney steel!

This is one of my Bloodletters from the Daemonhost of Khorne. These guys I wanted to be very quick to paint, but also emphasise their extreme evil and bestial nature with dark colours overwashed by Badab Black. The use of the wash to darken the models makes them look less cartoony and more evil to me.

 Colour Palette
Another choice in your overall army scheme is the Colour Palette you stick to. I've seen extreme ends of the scale for this, with a Warhammer Fantasy Wood Elf army that was painted in Blues, Greys and pale Browns as a winter theme and it looked amazing. However, just by using a limited palette of specific colours can give such an impression too.

Take my Ork Warboss, who was painted as "How all the rest of his Waagh! should look". By using a pale brown and cream colours for the clothing, I've tried to get the feel like they use really poor fabrics like 41st millenium potato sacks and such, to make them feel more like scavenging Raiders.

Also, I've not used gold on any of my Orks. I figured that a bunch of Looting Raiders would have either spent or lost the gold, so I went for very dark metal colours like battered steel.

Converting
The next step players take to theme their armies is converting - which can be something as simple as most of my Ork conversions are, or very heavily converted armies like Traitor Guard armies made from Catachan / Beastmen Hybrids or such.

My Orks, as I've said previously are major Lootas and since most of the time they are fighting Imperial opposition, they tend to loot their leftovers. Things range from small conversion jobs like weapon swaps and "Orkifying", to kit bashing and other conversions.

These are my Meganobz who thought the Beakies had it too good with their Terminator armour, so crumped a bunch of them and cobbled together the left over armour to make Mega Armour. They've also gone for a variety of colours, signifying they've fought lots of different Space Marine chapters in their time.

Themewise for the army, whatever the Orks can't loot they capture various types of Squigs and get them to do the same job! This is a Warbuggy count-as, that the Orks were more than happy to strap some Rokkits to and charge towards the enemy. This gets further reinforced in the army with a Squiggoth that doubles as a Battlewagon and an "Biological" Drednaught.

Back to more simple stuff now with my Lootas who are the poster boys of the force. These have simply had lots of Imperial and Xeno weapons cobbled together to make their Deffgunz, along with some Space Marine backpacks to tie them all together and make it so I can split the unit into 3 small squads of 5.

Basing
The final area for this article covers basing the army to tie it all together. Which can be as simple as my basing scheme which I use for all my forces - or more elaborate things like small puddles or swamp areas on bases to show the army is fighting in a marshland style environment, or something like snow basing.

Firstly, I started basing with this method when I used to play Lord of the Rings and first moved into 40k and wanted Urban themed Imperial Guard. I start by using Sand or Gravel (a mix of the two also works well) and then paint this with Chaos Black. Once dry, I do a heavy drybrush of Codex Grey and a second lighter drybrush with Fortress Grey. Then I re-paint the Rim of the base with Chaos Black, before putting patches of Static grass on.

I've continued using this method since then, as I envision all my armies are taking part in the same conflict on an un-named planet in the galaxy which forms the background for all my forces.

That way, when displayed with one another, or fighting each other, they form the basis for further background story on the planet whose Imperial Guard regiments face siege daily from all sides by the Orks, Necrons and Chaos Daemons (and maybe a Zombie or two).

Conclusion
So there you go, unifying and theming your army in 3 easy steps. So try and take this into account when you start a new army, or even add to your existing one.

What do you guys do to unify and theme your armies - and do you have any other tips?

SB