Necron Harbingers of Despair Cryptek conversions

Now that the warmachine league is over I can get back to 40k. I've got lots of prep work to get my necrons ready for the Blog Wars 4 tournament and the final Guardians of Tyr tournament of the year. Both in December, I've got just under 2 weeks to get all my stuff ready for Blog Wars. 

One of the things I've put in my army list for Blog Wars is a couple of Despair teks with veil of darkness. I don't like the Cryptek model that GW do and I can't even tell what type of tek its meant to be. As with my first tek I decided to make these out of normal warriors and odd bits and pieces I could find. I cast the heads with greenstuff from the mold I used last time. The staff is from the lychguard/triarch box and the weapony bits are from destroyers and the old metal spyder guns. To get the staff to hold together I had to pin it everywhere. One pin at either end and one for each hand. There was much cursing at the arms for not wanting to fit nicely to the warrior. I've put hoods on them because I like the idea of them being a bit spooky, being Harbingers of Despair. I'm not particularly good at sculpting so I hope they turn out ok after being painted. 

Now I just need to paint these guys up, along with a lord, a night scythe and 20 warriors, all before the 1st of December. AAAAaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh..........

Warmachine Journeyman League Final Week - Prizes for everyone!

Last Monday was the final week of the club Journeyman league. Only one game left and then results and awards at the end.

The battle was 35 points with no restrictions. I stuck with the starter box as the jacks work well but I changed the caster to have a play with the Witches Coven of Garlghast. The coven has some interesting abilities that I wanted to try, like making a unit have stealth or adding +2 speed, +2 mat and terror.

My opponent was Martin Copperwheat and his Khador. He used some bizarre caster that had to roll each turn to find out how much focus he had. His force had a fair amount of shooty stuff, with 2 squads of sniper things, a sniper solo and some heavy infantry with guns.

Martin was the home player so he got to setup first, he deployed everything in a long line in the pic above. I deployed in a deny flank formation putting everything in the right corner of the board. 

Martins first turn was just moving stuff up towards me.

On my first turn I cast stealth on the deathjack for laughs, infernal machine on my stalker jack, giving it +2 speed for a total of 9. The stalker then ran a whopping 18 inches! I also plonked a cloud aoe thing between my army and his shooters blocking LOS. 

Martin then moved up again right into my charge range, he tried some shooting at my chicken jack but its high def made the shots miss.

For a few turns we had various bundles of combat along the middle line of the board. Deathjack was chopping people to bits, at one point he had 4 focus that he generated himself with his skulls and with soul tokens giving me 13 focus on the board!

We were slowly chomping through each others army until the time was almost up. I frantically thought of a way to end the game quickly and found a way. The chicken on the left of death jack in the picture above was dead at this point. Deathjack was locked in combat with his heavy jack. With a crazy combo of spells I managed to get deathjack into combat with his caster with 5 focus on Deathy. I cast ghost walker on deathy, which allowed him to move out of combat without getting free struck, I then cast curse of shadows on his heavy infantry to make them almost incorporial, allowing me to move through them without penalty, I also cast infernal machine on deathy to give him +2 speed and +2 mat. Deathy then walked around the big jack, going through the infantry and into combat with his caster. After 2 boosted hits with deathjacks fists his caster was dead. Victory.

 After my game everyone's scores were tallied up for the award giving. Congrats to Ian Wardle for getting the most Journeyman points and hobby points with an overall score of 67, he was awarded badges for painting and overall points. I came second over all but first for game points so I got a little badge for it. Carl Sharman actually scored the same amount of game points as me but had painted less so the judge (Barrie) ruled that I beat him even though when the two of us actually played he beat me lol. 

Everyone who played received badges for the points they achieved and a league badge. 

Overall scores were:

 

	GP	HP	JP
Ian Wardle	21	46	67
Michael Towers	27	13	40
Barrie Wardle	24	13	37
Carl Sharman	27	6	33
Adam Eaton	23	0	23
David Copperwheat	17	5	22
Dave Bartley	21	0	21
Martin Copperwheat	16	0	16

  Thanks to Barrie of www.guardiansoftyr.com for organising the league.

Random Model Wednesday 4 - Vostroyan Baneblade

This week my random model is my Vostroyan Baneblade. A long time ago I ran an IG Tank company, back in the days when an army made entirely of vehicles was legal. I love the Vostroyan models but they're a real pain to paint, I've only got 1 painted squad of them but a big painted army of Vostroyan tanks with lots of Leman Russes of various variants, Basilisks and my 2 superheavies, the Baneblade and the Macharius Vulcan.

I got the Baneblade when Apocalypse came out and there was excitement everywhere and multi-packs of tanks and such. I had to get the Baneblade, it was just so big and awesome compared to anything else available in 40k at the time. I do like using it but in total I think its been used about 5 or 6 times in the many years that I've had it. There isn't much appetite for Apocalypse where I play, there's usually 1 game at Christmas if I'm lucky.

The superheavy is painted up in the same colour scheme as the rest of my Vostroyan tanks. Firstly a base coat of vomit brown, then 5 progressive drybrush highlights up to rotting flesh. Then a coat of really watered down grey with a thicker wash of grey around the track areas. The metal areas were just boltgun metal with a blackish wash and the brass was brazen brass with brown wash and highlighted. 

The only modifications made to the tank are the extra 2 sponsons and the guitar string aerials. I had the original aerials but they snapped off, then I replaced them with brass rod, but these snapped off with the plastic they were attached to and I finally put guitar string in which will probably explode or something. 

This poor tank never gets used any more :(. My other armies are too much fun to use compared to my guard.

Kingdom Death Forsaker Unboxing

Today I got in the post my Forsaker from Kingdom Death. Some people will be familiar with Kingdom Death and some will not. It is a properly adult horror RPG (none of this PG13 crap that has creeped in everywhere) in development and they have released some limited edition models for it. Some of the models are a bit controversial like the very NSFW Wetnurse and the also NSFW Scribe. The models look highly detailed, spectacular and quite mindwarping. I couldn't resist the urge to buy something so I ordered the Forsaker as he looked cool and wasn't too expensive for a trial model.

It arrived today and I excitedly opened the box. Inside there was a lovely art card and a sort of limited edition certificate inside a protective sleeve. Underneath that there was the box with the model in it. The sturdy box has a print of the model on it. Inside the box there was yet another art card, with the head and torso of the forsaker on the reverse. Underneath that was the actual model.

The model itself looks very detailed. Its along the lines of a Forgeworld resin model, possibly a bit better as it seems a bit sturdier and has some very small details like the horns. So far I've only found a couple of tiny bubbles in the resin and they're in easy to fix places. Being resin I was worried that there might be missing bits of horn and such but I'm really impressed with their casting to get all the sharp tiny edges out and delivering it intact. The only warping that I can't find is in the sword but this should be easy enough to fix.

The base is a bit bizarre and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. It is made of 2 discs, one with a lipped edge that a slightly smaller disc sits in. The larger disc has 30mm written on it in big letters on one side and a phoenix with 'I (heart) Poots' written on in on the other. I think I'll just glue the forsaker to the smaller disc and worry about the other one when the game comes out. 

Overall I'm very impressed with the combined product. The packaging is good and sturdy, the model is spectacular and the extras are a nice touch too. I just hope I can do the model justice when I paint it.

Warmachine Journeyman League week 5

This weeks restrictions: 35 points - Caster Swap Allowed - Game length 90 mins. 2 games to be  played.

This Sunday after a week of procrastination on the issue I started painting my Cryx starter box. With about 20 minutes to spare before I had to leave I had managed to finish it. Deneghra, Slayer, 3 death chickens all painted and based. I’ll probably put some finishing touches on them later though, like verdigris and the green glow of Cryx. So I’ve now got 13 hobby points putting me way out in first place for painting stuff……. Except for the fact that Ian Wardle has gone mental and obviously has far too much time on his hands, he’s somehow managed to paint up 30 points worth of trollbloods!!!!!1! Nerd rage ensued when I found this out checking the scores when I got home :( I would have to buy loads of cryx to equal this insane amount of painting and its not worth of for a sew on badge.

My army for the day, starter box, Deathjack, banethralls and mechanithralls

 

Before I start with the 2 games I played that night I should point out that Carl also pulled out some stops and had bought, assembled and almost finished painting the Cryx Colossal, the Kraken. Fortunately for me I didn’t have to play him that night and don’t have to play him in the final week either. Phew.

Game 1

My first game was against Adam Eaton’s Menoth. I was a bit nervous about this game as Adam was effectively undefeated up until this point. He had lost 2 games but this was down to him not being there that night. I had been defeated twice, so simple mathhammer told me I should loose this as Adam is a good player and I know he’s got loads of experience playing the game.

I was the home player so I got to go first.

 I moved my guys up cautiously. I managed to get my Mechanithralls and Deathjack within charge range of the roght flank. I expected to take some flak but thought I’d still have some thralls left and deathjack a bit damaged but I’d be able to put him in combat with squishy guys and heal the damage. I thought wrong. Adam killed all the mechanithralls in one go. I did manage to get deathy into combat and killed 1 man :( Adam then charged in his heavy jack into Deathjack after his choir and caster managed to increase the jacks hit and damage rolls by 3. Deathjack died to that one charge from a super buffed but otherwise normal heavy jack :( I was not a happy bunny.

His caster heroically hiding behind a wall of metal

My Banethralls went up the other flank and managed to get into combat with his other heavy jack. 3 Banes charged in and a 4^th just ran in to surround it and stop it doing the weird running away thing that Adam had planned. 3 charging Banes with 4d6 damage didn’t do anything to it at all.

I managed to get my acid belching death chicken into range of his caster and shot it, I killed one of the choir, did some damage to his caster and got corrosion on the caster and the big dude in front of him. The phase two of my evil plan, Deneghra cast venom 3 times through the death chicken. Yay for arc nodes! Didn't kill him though. He had 6 health afterwards.

Adam then popped his feat which stopped me from doing any focus generating for a turn. Bummer. Deneghra cast her feat and ran away from the enemy.

We didn't get much more done than that. We ran out of time. A draw by default is better than a loss. It was the first game Adam hasn't won in the league. Woo, I didn't die :D

Game 2 

David Copperwheat's Skorne again. This table had a nice pond and wall to hinder movement unless you have ghost walk, which Deneghra conveniently does. David was the home player and had first turn.

I deployed with my main bulk in the middle, my mechthralls on the right and my banethralls on the left. David had deployed his shooty stuff on my left so I put the banethralls there to take advantage of their stealth and negate his shooting a little.


On my turn I ran everything except the banes up the right hand side to hide behind the wall. 

David couldn't do much with all my stuff behind the wall. I managed to get the charge and sent in my Mechanithralls and Deathjack into his big infantry line, smooshing them in the process. 

Both sides ended up bundling into this combat. My acid spray chicken dealt dealth along a long line of infantry all bunched up, catching one of my other chickens but not damaging it.  

David then made a fatal error. He'd kept his caster too close to me and I popped my feat, catching all the skorne. I lowered almost all of their stats by 2. He'd also moved the big beast in front of his caster away from it into combat with my Mechanithralls. David popped his feat which stopped me from allocating any focus. I then finished the game by getting Deathjack and a chicken into combat with his unprotected caster. My jacks had no focus but Deathy deals and absolute ton of damage anyway and managed to pulverise him. Game won. There was only 3 minutes left on the clock, too close for comfort.

Deathjack perfoms the coup de grace.

 
By the end of the night I had won 1 game and drew 1. This put me in 2nd place for overall points and joint 1st for game points. Ian's insane painting spree means he's pretty much guaranteed to win overall unless someone else decides to go nuts. It won't be me that's for sure.

The league score's at the end of this week are:

 

		GP	HP	JP
1	Ian Wardle	20	30	50
2	Michael Towers	24	13	37
3	Barrie Wardle	22	7	29
4	Carl Shaman	24	0	24
5	Adam Eaton	22	0	22
6	Dave Bartley	19	0	19
7	David Copperwheat	14	5	19
8	Martin Copperwheat	15	0	15

Game Points: W3/D2/L1
Hobby Points: Newly Painted Models
Journeyman Points: GP + HP
 
 1 More game to play next week against Martin Copperwheat, will he avenge his father? I know he's using Khador so I'll plan accordingly. 

Random Model Wednesday 3 - Doom of Malan'Tai

This week my random model is my Doom of Malan’tai conversion. It is based on the standard Zoanthrope model. I replaced the head armour with the armour plates from a Mawloc’s head, I also replaced the little arms with some bigger arms and removed the back spines. I made this model a few years before fincast so it was a metal model, removing the top of the head was a right pain! I had to power file it off carefully, making sure I didn’t damage the rest of the model of accidentally file off my fingers. I had to greenstuff up the join between metal and plastic as it wasn’t a perfect fit. I also adjusted his neck, I don't like the way Zoanthropes have their faces pointing down. I cut off his head and green stuffed it back in place at a better angle.

The base was a resin Space Hulk style base. My entire nid army is themed like this to go with the stealers that came out of the limited edition Space Hulk. 

I painted the model in my standard nid colours, the paints used have long been out of production now :( bleached bone with flesh wash and blood red with brown ink.

This model hasn’t seen the table in quite a long time as I haven’t used my nids in ages. I don’t have the things that work in the current codex, just lots of genestealers and a handful of other gribblys like lictors and a shooty carnifex that isn’t even legal. I’ve got no intention of trying my nids again so this dude will just sit on my shelf.

Random Model Wednesday 2 - Lich Lord Terminus

Lord Toruk doesn't believe in dentists.

I bought and painted this guy years ago, I had no idea what Warmachine was at the time, I just saw him and thought "I have to have that!".

It turned out to be an absolute beast of a kit! All metal and there's almost as much brass pinning as there is model! (slight exageration). 24 separate metal parts, only 2 weren't pinned. The big spikes on the back of the wings are all separate, each one having to be drilled out, then pinned and then modelling putty to fill the gaps. It was a challenge getting this guy to stand up but it was well worth it.

Some many awkward spikes!

You call that a bonesword Mr. Hive Tyrant! This is a Bonesword!

This model was a big and risky experiment for me paint wise. The only style of colour and shading on this model that I had previously done was the red on the cloak. The brass was painted with the help of instructions from www.Brushthalls.com. Its a great website for painting tips. The greens were painted using paints mixed on the fly and I haven't used those particular colours since (can't remember what I did anyway). The necrotised flesh and bone was another experiment that worked quite well, I started with a plain white base and simply used a mixture of pale brown and green washes that were really watered down. I've used the same method on my other undead Cryx models since.

I'm very proud of this model, I just wish I knew how to use him effectively in a game. He's also a bit of a pig to try and transport, I have a little box just for him and the Deathjack filled with packing foam bits.

Warmachine Journeyman league week 4

We're now half way through the Journeyman league. This week we all had only one game to play as our club had an emergency meeting during the evening. The game this week was a 25 point game using the starter set for your faction but you could change your caster.

I actually managed to get something painted for this week and gained some points for it. I painted up my squad of banethralls that have been waiting about 4 years to be painted. The rusty metal came out really well. I started by painting the entire model orange with my airbrush, which ran out of pressure about half way through. then I drybrushed with boltgun metal and highlighted with mithril silver, then an overall coat of devlan mud. The smokey robey bit at the bottom was done simply by starting with black and progressive highlights with mixing in with white.

The Game

My opponent for the night was Dave Bartley of Mephiston's Wargame Blog. He was still using Menoth led by Kreoss. I'd played against him during the first week of the league and won but I wasn't confident about this game because I know he knows how to play this game. He's always the guy who gets asked the rules questions.

My force this week was the same as last week, it had a good feel when I was using it. I really like the banethralls and the skarlock thrall.

The mission for the day was the same as the rest of the league was still the killbox mission.

In my first turn I charged up a deathripper to use as an arc node and cast crippling grasp on one of his jacks. Little did I know that he has a spell that can remove ongoing effects, which he used quite a few times over the course of the game, much to my dismay.

I hid my slayer behind a wall with the skarlock thrall and the rest of my force tentatively moved up the board. The stalker ran up the left flank with the intention of catching his melee unit.

Dave retaliated by charging one of his heavy jacks into my deathripper but failed to do much to it because of the high Def on the little deathchicken.

My skarlock cast ghost walker on the slayer, which then charged through the wall into the large jack trying to beat up my chicken. My stalker managed to charge his squad of heavy melee dudes and I found out just how heavy they are, I barely scratched the one I charged.

Dave popped his feat, this knocked down all of my models that were within his caster's control range. This meant all of my models got automatically hit for a turn, which sucked big time. My stalker died easily, his high def doing nothing to save him as he flailed on the floor. All of my banethralls bar 2 died either from hits in combat of from fires resulting from the combat. Somehow my slayer and deathchicken managed to survive pretty unscathed.

I popped my feat but didn't manage to do much with it, Dave had a buff on his big jack that added 2 to a couple of its stats that negated the -2 I did.

My skarlock thrall ran around the corner of the wall and cast venom on the choir behind the jacks killing them all, mwahahaha!

We ended up with everything locked in melee in the middle for a few turns with our casters hiding on opposite sides, eventually my jacks emerged victorious from the fight in the middle and set their sights on Kreoss.

Dave managed to kill the slayer before it got to him, leaving just the deathchickens. Slowly but surely he picked of my chickens in combat until all that remained was Kreoss surrounded by wreck markers and Deneghra and my skarlock thrall. Kreoss had been upkeeping lamentation for ages, this spell makes me pay double the focus to cast anything while I'm in his control range, I hate it so much!

All that remained was the 2 casters and a skarlock thrall that couldn't cast any spells.

The only thing left to do was charge Deneghra into combat, so I did. Denny had 7 focus on her, failed to hit twice, then struck. I boosted the damage and did enough to finally finish him off. Far too close for comfort. The game was incredibly close..... A tough game is always more fun, thanks Dave!

I won't be able to play next week due to work commitments but I'll hopefully bolster my points by painting my remaining models instead.

The league standings for week 4 are:

Jouneyman Results - Week 4
                                             GP      HP     JP
1. Barrie Wardle                   16        7        23
2. Michael Towers                19        3        22
3. Adam Eaton                      19                 19
4. Ian Wardle                        18                 18
4. Carl Sharman                    18                 18
6. David Copperwheat          12        2       14
7. Dave Bartley                     13                 13
7. Martin Copperwheat         13                 13

2000 point semi Apocalypse Tournament with Guardians of Tyr in Northampton on 16/12/12

Guardians of Tyr are hosting their Final 40k tournament of the year on the 16th December at their usual venue of the Wargames Workshop store in Northampton.

This is the grand finale of the year long championship and is a 2000 point each apocalypse style game.

The event will be a single game on a huge table with all the players split randomly into 2 teams. The game will play out like an Apocalypse game with a set amount of time for each turn. Points are awarded for all sorts of things, players will have the team objectives and their own personal objectives as well as various bonus points.

I'm currently in the lead for the championship so I'll be taking part in the event if all goes well. It currently looks possible for someone to topple my position if they pull out all the stops on the day, we'll see what happens...... I'll not go down quietly.

Rules for the tournament can be found here http://www.guardiansoftyr.com/big-game.html and to book a place you need to contact the organisers here or if you contact Wargames Workshop they'll be able to book you a spot.