Tervigon Conversion Pictures

I'm going to let the tactial deep-thinking go by the wayside for a little bit since I finally got off my tail and got access to a camera. Here come the tervigons! They're a carnifex kit with warrior scything talons (...I don't see much point in melee upgrades past the double-glands for these guys, but I suppose I could justify Scything Talons) and a foam ball to bulk up the back. Like the Tyrannofexes, I'm going for simple but effective. One of them's even taking a termagant-dump.
Front and back. Mmm, green stuff and foam for the bulking out.

I figure the big tongue works as a toxin-type upgrade. If you look closely at the ribs on the bottom, there's the adrenal gland. With all the other gooey bits up top, I just couldn't find a good spot to slap the gland. The pointy carapace bit servs me again as cluster spines, though I suppose it could also do the Stinger Salvo in a pinch.

Side view; one of them has the talon atached to a chunk of the base and the other's doing just fine.

And finally, a bit of a top view. If I shot directly from the top, well, there'd be the shadow from my hand and all.

I know there's no way they'd actually fit the 20 bajillion termagants in there, and the max production they could make out over the course of a game is 15 per turn (that's a 4, 5, and 6, so no doubles) for seven turns, or 105 termagants. There's no way you're fitting that much space into anything you really want to field and justifying it being able to move under its own power.

I figure that the tervigons carry a crap-ton of embryos, and then use some kind of internal fuel source to rapidly hatch them and grow them and fire them out. Thus, when you see doubles, it's the fuel source burning down, or some other internal ammo-depleted type of deal.

Deathwing Update 2, Marathon

The Deathwing cometh (along). I finally got some of the Green Stuff in. I'm talking the 'bulk-rate' green stuff, where it's like $12.99 for an inch wide, four inch tall cylinder. That's why these bases are texture with the stuff.

I'm also using the Deathwing project as an excuse to use some good ol' Pig Iron heads. I'm sorry, they do sweet work. Those are the visor-down heavy armor helmets. Sweet, yes? Yes.

The next step will be doing some green stuff. The guys have cardboard superglued to their crotches as a guide for tabards. I suspect that one way or the other, I'll have learned a lot about Green Stuff by the time this is over.

Admittedly, I've been working a bit slower. I...kind of found Marathon (that will run on my PC. Huzzah). Yeah, it's the old-school mid-90's Bungie shooter. This came out the same time as Doom, and...honestly? Kicks the crap out of doom. There is an actual plot other than "DEMONS BAD! SHOTGUN GOOD!" Admittedly, I enjoy Doom and Doom 2 for mindless fun, but Marathon's got a bit more challenge to it.

I'm not sure how to relate it to 40k, other than you're basically playing a Space Marine (minus power armor, plus ancient tech, minus the bolter). However, the W'rkncacnter sound a whole lot like the C'tan, 'cept the C'tan EAT stars and the W'rkncacnter are imprisoned in them. Plus, the eldar god/gods that are the W'rkcacnter kind of CREATE chaos and/or destruction.

However, the Pfhor are a bit more melee-oriented. I'm not sure how they'd be best represented, though the Melee Guard with Commissars could work out. Red pfhor for the basic guard, purple for the sarges, and the Enforcer for the Commissar? (since said Pfhor carry whompin' sticks, and the Enforcer kind of keeps his buddies in line with a gun sometimes).

Productivity will likely pick back up, but 'til then the aliens need a little cyborg-assisted death. Flamethrowers in a space ship = first (and last) contact. I suppose I could equate the game with Space Hulk, and I am a squad of Terminators in a can.

Eldar Pictures, and 100th post nonsense

And so, after just about 4 full months, I've reached the arbitrary '100 posts' mile stone. Funny, we talked about milestones in Contract Management today...so it goes.

For your entertainment/edification/what-have-you (and my Eldar-oriented readers) I have proof that I have not abandoned the pointy-eared
old arrogant guys (or gals). I took the plunge and painted up the Howling Banshee squad I'd acquired some time ago from Xardian.

They started white, got hit with warlock purple + wash o' Leviathan Purple. Then add ice blue to the cloth bits and jewels, Asurmen blue for the cloth, and white + bleached bone + Devlan Mud to the white and gold bits. Weapons are red + Baal Red wash. The basing is Xard's GS basing, and I think I'm going to just carry that through the rest of the army.

The next exhibit is my Princess Yriel(ette?) conversion. Banshee body with arm switches, and a scratch-made cloak. In part this is a test of whether or not I'll be using these cloaks on my Deathwing conversions, but I'm liking it thus far.

That Promised Musing

Looking back, I think I'm pretty prolific. Then again, I've been unemployed since I started this blog. Make no mistake, I like the spare time, but...amusingly enough, I'm pretty much out of stuff to paint.

Ok, technically, I've stripped some of my Eldar and have plans to re-work them, but my ability to purchase things has...dropped. There's that whole 'no money' thing. Kind of amusing, but also kind of annoying. (Well, not 'kind of', I'd really like to get a damn job and get on with life rather than just stay in school a bit longer).

Even when I do get a job and my 40k time wanes, I intend to keep on updating this. I feel, in part, if I've a mission/talent? Contribute clearly-written, well-reasoned articles. I like to think I'm usually responsive to comments, and will entertain alternative viewpoints. Most any tactical article I toss up here gets some revision, and I try to write 'em up and send them to From The Warp because some of their army sections are just woefully incomplete.

I feel like I'm competitive, but for me, part of the fun is trying to win. Figure out how the army works, what compnents are good, how to form them into a good list, and then how to wield them properly. I feel like I've progressed with the Eldar (but not perfected them), and I think there's plenty of Tau learning to do. I'm going to try to do a bit less in the way of little list tweaks, just to figure out the full impact of it. Ideally, I'll lock it down to a few lists and streamline my collection.

Am I against fluff? ...fluff got me into the game, thanks. I've a hefty shelf of 40k novels. The hobby? I think that's also important; that's why I've been trying to work on Daemons and also the Deathwing. While winning's fun and the tactical game is fun, I also feel like I've emphasized trying to have a neat-looking army.

Competitive vs. 'fun'? Bull. Competitive AND Hobby

I think when you get down to it, there's this strange misconception that you're either having fun, OR winning. There's some mutual exclusivity.

I won't lie; I think some of us are playing different versions of 40k. There's competition, and there's hobby. I have nothing against either; I think the Deathwing and any Daemon list I come up with might have some 'hard' components, but I think they're more fun. I think the Tau list I'll end up using is more killy, but I think you can still get a theme on.

At the end, I have no animosity against 'hobby' folks. I think I do a bit of both, though my strengths lie more towards coming up with and trying to explain tactics/blowing up the other guy.

I do think, though, that both extremes of the continuum can acknowledge each other, admit there's a difference, and just get on with life. I suppose the most recent example is the BoLS-Con. I admit, I'm scratching my head at the winning list. I think there's a good lesson here about learning your army; you can pull internet tactics all you want (and learn from them), but there's still practice.

(as an aside? I am totally envious of the skill/time/effort put into that Tyranid army).

Getting back to it, the tournament was run differently than others, to my understanding. The pace, and all that were different.

My ultimate take on this? Always put news in context; this is no exception. We're people, we're stuck with bounded rationality. I don't care whatever your classes have taught you about people. We're lazy. We don't always do our homework, and sometimes we'll just flat-out ignore inconvenient facts. Don't be that. Do your homework, and be honest with yourself.

That's me, at least, and maybe I'm a stickler for it because of some scientific method training.

Anyway, enough aimless pondering for the day. Give yourself a cookie if you wandered through this last section in depth.*

*I learned the hard way not to promise cookies. I still owe Xardian one for a gutsy deep strike. Never seen anyone pull off so many risky deep-strikes. LUCK OF THE DEVIL.

Crisis Suit Commander WIP, Mystery Sprue

And after a little bit of quiet, I offer proof that I have not been idle. This is the slightly WIP version of my Fire-Caste Commander. As you can see, it's a fairly heavy conversion, and, well, pretty sizeable as well. When he's finished, I'll post him alongside a regular Crisis Suit so everyone can get an idea of the size difference.

I actually have a list of inspirations for this one. The folks over at Advanced Tau Tactica have some amazing conversions up. Go check it out. For the Armored Core fans, I have to cite Noblesse Oblige and the Aaliyah chassis for the head.

The legs come from a Mechwarior Age of Destruction Nova Cat. I think it ends up looking like a heavier version of the leg that the rest of my conversions will have.

The hands, of course, were inspired by the conversion of Old Shatterhands. Knife + green stuff + powerfists + sanding = big hands for a Crisis Suit. The torso's bulked up with some flamer fuel tanks, and some marine thigh pouches on the top. There's a liberal application of green stuff and some sanding to make the chest look panelled. The side thrusters (the far outside) are taken from the back of a Mechwarrior AOD Phoenix Hawk. The extra wing-bits on those are from the Mystery Sprue.

Anyone have a clue just what this sprue is and where it came from? I'm seeing Imperial, Chaos, Tau and Eldar bits on this thing. I can't think of where I got it. I think it came in the triple-Falcon boxed set, or some such.

Crisis Suit Team 1, Finished

Here is is, the first Crisis Suit team converted up and completed. I'm pretty satisfied with how they came out, all in all.

The only real conversions are the legs and thrusters, and those aren't too huge. Cut plasticard tube, add extra joint. The thrusters involved measuring a bit of rectangular plasticard tubing, and angling it correctly. All in all, the toughest part was getting the legs to set, look right, and line up. Hence, some of the guys sitting on plasticard strips which were then glued to the base. But, hey, the result's a dynamic pose, isn't it? So it's worth it, in my opinion.

The missile racks are stacked plasticard tubing, in part because I like the triangle a bit more for an arm mount and in part because of the potential scarcity of those. The plasma rifles are the stock plasma rifles, largely because I think those look plenty Tau. Looking back at it, I think I have to claim inspiration from the ESWAT/Ghost in the Shell armed suit for the legs.

Kroot Squads

Another painted update? Wow. I must be feeling ambitious. These are my Kroot squads.

The squads are differentiated by...hair color. It's not like Kroot actually have that many ways to distinguish themselves as squads, so here we go. There are a grand total of 34 kroot here. Yay, meat shields!

You might notice a difference between the guys on the left, and the guys on the right. The ones on the left are my counts-as Kroot Hounds. They're simply Kroot that have fed on predators and developed a taste for stabbing the crap out of whatever they can really, really fast. The kroot on the right are the more garden-variety kroot that are fine whacking things with kroot rifles, or using the boom-stick portion. What matters to them is that they eat.

Both squads are 17 strong. This means you have to kill 5 of them to force a morale check, which should be reasonably difficult. Most of the time, anyway. We'll see, though. I'm reasonably pleased with how they came out, and I think the Kroot Stalkers (the counts-as hounds) are sufficiently different from the regular ones.

Piranha Number 1

I mixed up a batch of snow basing material. I think I've got that down, but now I figured I would share pictures.

This is one member out of the Piranha squadron, or "WEEEE! We're in your face with a meltagun!" It's like all those annoying attention-whore, loud, high-pitched whiny children you never want to deal with, except it kills you if you ignore it.

I'm not much a fan of the flying bases, since they tend to break. In fact, this guy's hole had already been filled by a busted peg. So, we apply the magnet to it. Good old rare earth magnets to the rescue. As you can see, the flying base has a big one on it (superglued to a piece of plasticard, which is in turn plastic-cemented to the stick). The Gun Drones have a small magnet on the bottom, and a small magnet on top of the base. Considering that the Piranhas are not too hard to destroy (AV 11/10/10 open-topped, after all) I think it's safe to say I'll be needing to slap the gun drones onto their bases pretty regularly.

Sadly, I don't yet have Piranha #2 (unemployment and all...kinda can't go out and drop $30 on 'im). The they'll be a happy little short-lived squad. Planned kit is a Disruption Pod for the 4+ cover save, and then gear for +1BS, and the ability to multi-target with the squad's weapons. Their role is harassment, contesting, and blocking up movement lanes. They're also quite expendable in those roles.

I'm pretty satisfied with the paint job, as I think it gets across the 'weathered, worn, and long in the field' look I'm aiming for with the cadre. I think there are a lot of sharp, crisp, clean Tau armies out there, and I want my grubby blue guys to stand out. It's the Greater Good, but they're a little tired and could use a few weeks R & R.

Crisis Suit Conversion 2

And here we go...this is my second generation of Crisis Suit conversions.

The first one is a bit different.

I've kept the head to an easier mod. The aerial is a barrel from the Burst Cannon. The 'cheeks' are plasticard bits.

The most work is in the legs. I like the double-jointed legs; supposedly the 'digitigrade' leg is a more efficient stride and all that. I'd wager it's also better for jumping as well.

The legs are pretty simple: I trim the lower leg from the normal battlesuit, file it, reposition it, and add about a centimeter of narrow, boxy plasticard.

The altered jetback is pretty simple. Hacksaw it off, then cut a couple lengths of boxy plasticard. I think the angle and extra exhaust port on the bottom make them look a little more dynamic and sizeable.

I'm back and forth on the wings, and I feel that the real issue the suit has is in the legs. The head is a second place, but I think this mod is workable. I admit I'm inspired by what I've seen on Warhammer Tau in terms of mods for the head. My challenge is that I'm getting the suits predominantly in trades or off e-bay, so the bits aren't always included. I could easily get the missile pods, but I'm liking the scratch-built stack of them better.

In general, I think I actually captured the pose of 'hopping out from behind of grav tank and firing missiles' well. At least, I like it. Probably change my mind in a bit.

Oh, and of course for the record it's a little WIP-py on the paint...I expect that to be remedied soon.

Tau Broadside Team Conversion

You were all promised pictures of Tau conversions the other night. Well, I deliver (you SAVE! Or something like that). As you can see, I've cobbled together the Broadsides I intend to run. I have spoken on them in other posts, and I have indeed drawn inspiration from the Battletech Rifleman IIC. This conversion uses pieces of the Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction Ghost. Specifically, I borrowed the lower legs, cockpit, and side of the torso. The missile pods are from an Age of Destruction model as well. The arm guard is from the Eldar grav tanks, and the guns are a mix of fusion blasters and plasticard tubing.

Overall, I think it gives the Broadside a much more imposing look. It's obviously derived from the XV-8 suit (as per the fluff), but it looks bulkier and more armored.

The Shield Drone antennae (as well as the Crisis Suit's single antennae) are sawed-off Pulse Rifles. Hey, you kitbash your Pathfinders off the Fire Warrior kit (which is much more cost effective, BTW) and you'll have spare rifles. The 'radar dish' on top is from the Skyray kit; it's the Markerlight mount cemented into place with some Green Stuff.

Naturally, the bases lack the snow. I intend to run one more batch of snow, as I see no need to waste it, and it's easier to mix up in larger batches. Right now I'd have a handful more bases to do, and the Crisis Suits. I intend to run the team thusly:

2 XV-88 Broadside Suits (2x70)

Each w/ Advanced Stabilization System (for the required battlesuit support system) (2x10)

One w/ Upgrade to Team Leader (5)

-Drone Controller w/ 2 Shield Drones (30)

-Hard-wired Target Lock (5)

Total: 200pts.

The team can move and shoot (so I don't lose a turn of shooting to clever maneuvering, or the need to backpedal. More for the move/shoot). The Drones are there to keep the unit alive longer, as someone needs to eat that krak missile/lascannon/other instant death thing. The Target Lock lets me share the Railgun love.

More pictures to come: Kroot squads, the Piranha, and I need good shots of the Fire Warriors.

Tau pictures looming

A quick teaser:

I've finally finished building/converting the Broadsides. I primed them tonight, and intend to get them painted up in the next couple days, so we can all see how the Rifleman-inspired buggers do. Included with them will be the Piranha, and the Kroot that have been done for a bit. I'm finishing up the last two 'hounds' (I mean ninja Kroot, or Kroot Lancers? Something like that.)

You'll also notice a lot of the up-and-coming bases will be lacking snow, but I'll be doing them as a batch.

If I end up real productive, I'll have a WIP Crisis Suit or two with me.

For the Tau army in general, I lack:
-1 Piranha
-about 5 Crisis Suits
-Some components for the second Hammerhead (Railgun, etc.)

Amazing how close it is to completion, since it doesn't feel nearly done. I need to break it out and get it onto the tabletop some.

Guard Conversion Brainstorms

Ok...well, the pictures ended up heftier than I'd hoped, but what the hell. I've been brainstorming and getting the itch to go Guard. I've been kicking around a few ideas for a conversion-heavy army, and here they are:

Gears of War series: Locust

The Locust in Gears of War are, I think, a fine human-wave type army. I would personally suggest that the Gears would be better done as a Plague Marine oriented army, since Gears just refuse to die from small arms fire. Just repeated flesh wounds, y'know?

The Locust, though, might be done with the Catachan range. The real trick would be mottling up the bodies enough, as Locust tend to be pale, hairless, and have what are almost scales. If you want to do heavy weapon teams you can do two regular guys, or roll with Boomers for the heavy weapons. I mean, the Boomer is essentially a one-man heavy weapon team, and the Boomer would be fine as a two-wound creature.

For Locust Comissars, you could go with the priest types. Vets could be done up to look like Theron Guards. Skorge, boss of game two, could easily do justice for Iron-Hand Straken's statline, as Skorge cuts a tank in half.

Tanks would be up in the air for conversions, but the Locust seem to prefer some kind of mind-control type of helmets on creatures in lieu of something like a gas-belching tank. I think Sentinels, for example, would do well as Reavers on the ground. Other tanks could be done as
other types of creatures, and while the Brumak sort of suggests a Russ, it more suggests a Titan.

I would probably default to the Tyranid range to modify into tanks. The good old Carnifex kit and a heap of scything talons would probably do it. Tap into some Guard bits for the guns and graft a guy onto it...and it's all good. Consider a square base for determining the facings and such, and I think it could be something worth investigating.

The Helghast out of Killzone 1-2

I can't say I'm the one that came up with the idea first, as there are at least a few folks out doing it: go check out Itkovian's Not Yet Done for a look.

The Helghast aren't that intensive to pull off, as the minimum is a head swap. However, swapping up the guns and adding in coats will do the trick nicely, I think. I like them just because the Helghast are basically human-wave types with a super-man complex, as, y'know, they colonized a crap planet, dealt with the radiation, and turned out pretty nasty for it.

Adeptus Mechanicus

What can I say? I've been an AdMech fan since I can remember. I imagine they'd have access to most of the Guard's type of hardware, but it might look different. You get an excuse to throw down a rust-red paint job on everything, though I think they would be a nearly fully-mechanized guard army. Melta-vets in Chimeras, and just pick the rest of your tanks.

I think the AdMech army could get as heavily or lightly converted as you want. On a basic level? Tech-priest converted for company command, and Cadians or Kasrkin painted in Admech colors, tanks in rust-red, cogs for icons, and all that.

Or, you could go all-out and scratch-design vehicles, and pull in a variety of ranges.


Other more minor ideas

-Chaos Guard (as lavish as you want; go check out 7+ to Hit for some renegade guard pics.)

-Adeptus Arbites (boys in blue mobilize!)

The Hammerhead and Vypers

Now, normally I think Tau tanks look pretty sweet as-is. It's part of the aesthetic that drew me to the Tau to begin with. Well, this Hammerhead came to me in a trade, albeit not in this form. The form was not pleasing to my eye, and included bits from a Skyray, and some other random stuff. So, I modded it up. The engines got repositioned, and I used the Skyray missile hangar-wing as a set of stubby winglets. Some of the inspiration comes from Descent 3's old Magnum, which is in the bottom left. This Hammerhead has some cleanup here and there, and the base is incomplete, but you get the idea. I'm reasonably satisfied with the rugged-looking paint job; the problem with committing to such vast expanses of a single color is making it look INTERESTING, and I think I pulled that off.

I'm also pretty happy with the way my Vypers came out. They're mottled in grays (fortress gray, space wolf gray, and skull white, actually) to match the same basic thing my Eldar have going on. Same goes for the gold canopies. I got both of these in a trade; one was fully magnetized and one was in the box. When I say 'fully magnetized', I mean the thing could be taken fully apart, the guns were magnetized, etc. I tweaked that one a bit, and instead of popping the whole front canopy assembly off, I just moved a magnet to the chin turret, and kept the gunner's turret magnetized as it was.

I think the two configs I'd run Vypers in are double shuriken cannon (Seen here) and catapult/scatter laser. Even if I don't end up changing loadouts often, I can still track damage readily.

More Tzeentch Heralds, and even a Devilfish

Well, I was busy on the fourth of July, but here we go. I finished painting up the two converted Jetbike-chariot Tzeentch heralds. Flamer + Jetbikes + weapon bits + melee bits from Chaos Knights.

And a less well-lit shot. It conceals the part where the red herald's scythe didn't glue straight.

And, the first (and maybe only) Devilfish needed for the Tau. It's heavily drybrushed, and meant to look like it's beat-up and worn and been in the field a while. The snow hasn't been added to the base. You can also see the smart missile conversions; it's a Mechwarrior: Dark Age bit that I already have, and it beats bit-ordering the things.

I do think I'm going to cut the flying base down a bit to make it look like it's the lower flying base.

Herald of Tzeentch Completed

I've completed the Herald I hinted at a post or two ago. I like the way it's come out for the most part.

I'm also reasonably proud of the Tzeentch mark on the back. There was a lot of empty space on the back of the Destroyer body; at best it was kind of textured with the drybrushing and washing. At worst it was kind of 'bleh.' So, I pencilled in the symbol, then painted it, and BAM! Emeril-style, it looks better.

The base is a standard 60mm round, and the lava-bits are Squadron Green Putty. Gotta love that stuff for adding texture to bases. Then it's painted, and some GF9 ash waste flcok thrown into it when it's drying.

Deathwing Conversion sub-assembly 1, Daemon Teaser

Here, we see a side-by-side comparison of the old metal termies (left) and the new plastic ones (right). Note carefully that Mr. Metal Termie is short and squad, while the plastic one stands taller and looks even more menacing. (Yes, he's big enough that his storm bolter and powerfist still look cooler than the thunder hammer and storm shield the other dude has.) This is a problem for me, as I am using metal termies in my Deathwing-conversion project.

Why? Simple. I simply CANNOT sell my termies. It's not worth it. The Assault on Black each boxed set is a solid bargain, and as such you can order 5 plastic terminators on-sprue for $10-15 dollars. I just don't feel like handing off Termies for $2 a head. It seems like a waste of my time.

So, I'm going to do something even more time-consuming: invoke the almighty power of Counts-As, and make a Deathwing-themed army.

And THIS is how we solve the problem. The Terminator in the middle is a bizarre, unholy fusion of plastic and metal. How did he come to this terrible state? Simple. I temporarily relieved him of his arms, hacksawed him in half at the waste, and then inserted a cutting of 1mm thick plasticard. Note that it's not precise, but that's what green stuff (or, in my case, green-stuff robes) are for. Note how that even without the arms, he stands tall and proud. Soon, franken-fusion termie, you'll have arms again.

Behold, the beginning of the unholiness. Seven terminators relieved of arms, rent in twain, and then enhanced with plasticard. The work begins. Dramatic proof I'm serious about this Deathwing thing.

More proof I'm serious will involve mass-producing cloaks to go on them (taken from a casting of the Chaos Terminator Lord/Sorceror's kit) and mass-producing the FTW-style pre-heresy terminator shoulder pads.

And, the promised teaser: one of my heralds of Tzeentch. I had a necron destroyer laying around from that temporary-insanity phase where I tried to run a Necron army, and realized there's a difference between challenging yourself with a codex, and playing an army that's deficient. This guy needs a little more paint, but I'm pleased with how he's going. It fits into the Daemonforge theme I've got going on.

Daemons, Deathwing, and Conversions

First order of business...the Daemon vs. Xardian's Footslogging CSM batrep. I didn't bring the camera, so you'll have to rely on my memory and good old MS paint diagrams.

The Battle Report
Scenario: Table Quarters w/ 4 Objectives

Xardian's CSM, the Red Team
Lord w/ Mark of Tzeentch, meltabomb, power weapon, Disc of Tzeentch ('L')
3 Large (15-16 man) squads of CSM; Icon of Chaos Glory, Champ w/ Fist, 2 specials (flamers or a meltagun) ('M')
2 Squads of 4 Terminators Each (3x PW/Combi-plas, one w/ powerfist/heavy flamer) ('T')
2 Havoc Squads (10-man w/ Chaos Glory; one with 4 missiles, one w/ 2 autocannon, 2 missiles)
1 Squad of 8 Lesser Daemons

Chaos Daemons (as inspired by Stelek), the Blue Team
3 Heralds of Tzeentch (Chariot, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Tzeentch, Soul Devourer) ('H')
3 units of 5 Fiends of Slaanesh ('F')
4 units of 5 Plaguebearers ('P')
2 units of 8 Bloodletters ('B')
3 Daemon Princes (Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch, Daemonic Gaze) ('M')

Chosen Half: 2 Heralds, 3 Fiends, 3 DP

The Battlefield
Objectives (the Green X's)
Grey Blobs: rocky area terrain
Black Polygons: 2-story buildings



Turn one?
I win the roll, and let him go first. He sets up with a large squad on both objectives, and a squad headed down towards the bottom. Havocs are in tidy little shooting spots.

I…promptly fail to get the correct half of my army; the Chaos Gods flip me a ‘1’. Plague Bearers come down on two of the objectives, and one squad gets ready to hide some. Bloodletters come down behind the Plaguebeaers, and hope to use them for cover. My Herald comes down without incident, and promptly accounts for 3 marines that are in the open.
Turn 2
The guns come on. He wipes out the Bloodletters on the far flank; they were going to think about end-running and assaulting a squad. The other squad gets cut down to half, and his Lord detaches to go charge the plaguebearers. They promptly tie combat.

I roll a Daemon Prince, a Herald, and all three fiends. One squad of Fiends promptly strikes off the table and dies from the mishap. The Bloodletters find a gap in the chunk of Plaguebearers, and get into melee with the Lord. We tie combat with two wounds.

Turn 3
He promptly one-rounds the Daemon Prince with some Terminators and plasma. Damn if he’s not got a lot of icons and a lot of room to deep-strike stuff. Marines advance and pour fire into a Herald, and get two wounds on it. Marines shuffle, and don’t assault. Can’t say I blame them. Shooting occurs; stuff dies, and then the Bloodletters hack a wound off the Lord and the Plaguebearers finish it off.

The other Herald and a Daemon Prince join the fray. The Prince looks around and picks a spot to pick on Havocs with. He then picks on Havocs. My Fiends and Bloodletters promptly massacre one of his squads; the other Fiends promptly engage the Terminators and beat ‘em up. The Plaguebearers charge the nearby marine squad after the Heralds soften them up; there are two models left when the zombies hit: the Icon and the Champ. Champ falls. The third herald, who just arrived in left field, guns down more marines. Now it's not reflected in the diagrams, but the Summoned Lesser Daemons DO beat down a wounded Herald, and the other one takes two Fearless wounds.

Turn 4
A Daemon prince goes ‘poof.’ Damn, that’s happening with some kind of frightening regularity…his Daemons and last Terminators arrive. He proceeds to LIGHT UP the Bloodletters, and they die. They’d consolidated into cover by the Havocs, gone to ground, and STILL busted out a bunch of 1’s and 2’s. His Daemons tie up the nearby heralds in CC, and the remaining dude in that squad just keeps lasting. He’s made about 7-9 power armor saves by now. My Fiends finish off the Terminators that had KO’ed the prince.

My last Daemon Prince arrives; it and the herald light up the marine squad on the far side and whittle it down to a handful of fellows. The mostly-full Fiends proceed to help eat up the Lesser Daemons, and the remaining Fiend charges into his Terminators, and actually kills one. The Daemon Prince and Herald finish off that last, depleted squad.

Turn 5
His Terminators finish off that last, recalcitrant Fiend. They consolidate towards the nearest Plaguebearer squad. Additionally, I FINALLY finish off that straggling marine. At this point, he thinks it’s looking pretty grim.

In my turn, I lay claim to the other two objectives, and we toy with a turn six. It’s not enough to dislodge me.

Victory: Daemons.

Casualties:

CSM: 3 large CSM squads, Terminator squad, Lord, Daemons

Daemons: 2 Daemon Princes, 2 Bloodletter squads, Fiends x1, Herald x1

All in all, a bloody, brutal, fun throw-down. I'd wanted soemthing other than my dice-damned Eldar, especially after the last weekend. We also completed our trade, so I'm out some more mothballed Marines and up 2 Vypers and a well-converted Wave Serpent. I have plans for them...

Daemon Conversions

I'll eventually put up more pics, but part of the point of starting Daemons was, for me, the conversions. Someone recently chanced across my blog who's doing Daemons for much the same reason; go check out Lady Falcia's conversion blog. Interesting paint scheme and theme, and while I've seen Dryads used as Horrors, I haven't seen them incorporated in that manner.

But, I'm looking for Bloodletters...I ask Xardian, and he suggests good old Sisters Repentia. No one uses the blasted things much any more, and I could probably e-bay them for cheap. Knock a few Eviscorators out, and replace 'em with hammers. I mean, Bloodletters have a big, bad, power weapon, so why not go that route and use someone with a big two-handed weapon? I mean, I'd looked at some of the Fantasy folks with Great Weapons, except they tended to be metal and expensive. Not really what I'm looking for, for starters.

The Chaos-Wing List

I think I figured out what to do with the remainder of the points; I hand the Librarian a combi-weapon and trade out the last Cyclone Missile Launcher for an assault cannon. Then, I don't have to buy a damned thing. The army would then look like...

Belial

Librarian w/ Terminator Armor, Combi-weapon (probably melta or flamer)

4x Terminator Squads w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist

1x Terminator Squad w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist, Apothecary

2x Command Squads w/ 2 meltaguns, Apothecary

Total: 1850, aw yeah.

The command squads give me more apothecaries and make you make me take more saves. Ha.

And, I've got plenty of Terminators, and more than enough bodies. Tiem to think more on the conversion theme, but I'm thinking in terms of robes (to cover up the Imperial iconography) and some head swaps, and probably chaosing-up some Chainfists.

There's also the issue of covering up a whole lotta Crux Terminatus.

On the Painting Front: Tau

...man, assembly-lining 32 kroot is fun. Sure, we'll call that 'fun', but at least after that the Tau army I'm working on is damn near painted. Still 5 Crisis Suits, 2 Broadsides, and a hammerhead down, but it's getting there. Got a Crisis Suit painted up (mostly), and got the Fire Warriors done up.

Strainborming, Deathwing?

Now, one of the byproducts of having played marines (and flirted with Deathwing, for a time) is that I've got a lot of Terminators.

Not only that, but the problem is that Terminators aren't really worth a lot in terms of resale value. The whole Black Reach boxed set has seen to that rather well, and people have bitted out Termiantors for very little.

As such, I'm wondering about doing something with them. Now, I like the idea of Chaos, and I could even fall for the codex (somewhat), there's still the issue of running an army.

I'm also hankering a bit for some conversion fun, and until that blankety-blanking job finally calls back and gives me hours, I'm kind of out of money.

So, a thought's emerged, in part from this article from FTW and from seeing a 'First Company' army from the previous RTT.

Of course, brainstorming up Deathwing and working over the lists also means dealing with the art of BUILDING a Deathwing list. Nothing here comes in small blocks. You're stuck with taking Belial to 'unlock' Deathwing squads as troops, and there aren't a ton of options to hand to the Terminators.

Looking at the Deathwing Squad
The average squad comes in at 215 points for 5 fearless terminators; storm bolter and powerfists down the line except for sarge, who got a power weapon (for some reason or another).

Options
Any model can trade their loadout for a pair of lightning claws, or a thunder hammer and storm shield. This is free.

Squad may take one assault cannon or cyclone missile launcher. This is the 'old' cyclone which costs 20 points to the cannon's 30, but only fires a single krak missile. There's also the heavy flamer at 5 points, but we are kind of a short squad, and unless we're taking landraiders we are walking or risking the deep-strike.

Anyone may take a Chainfist for +5 points.

Additionally, one squad can be designated the 'command' squad, and take an Apothecary (one unit w/in certain range can ignore a failed armor save, with some restrictions) and a Standard (that grants +1 attack to everyone).

Squad loadouts
To be honest, I think the special weapon of choice here is the assault cannon. If I could take the updated codex: Space Marines cyclone, I'd do that in a heartbeat to get the range and versatility. As it stands? Assault cannon's as good as it gets. That puts the squad at 245, and everyone's getting themselves a chainfist, just to put it at an even 250 and let them handle the odd AV14 rear thing that comes along.

It also gives me three distinct 'groups' per squad with wound allocation: Sarge, Special Weapon, SB/Powerfist x2, and SB/Chainfist.

Belial (or whatever his name will be)
Belial's a no-brainer; 130 points for a WS5, BS5, I5 3-wound character in terminator armor. I can pick a storm bolter and master-crafted power weapon, a pair of lightning claws, or a thunder hammer/storm shield for him.

I'm leaning towards the lightning claws or bolter/power weapon. The bolter/MC power weapon lets him always contribute, but then again it's just a BS5 storm bolter. A couple more shots, maybe an additional wound. Lightning claws mean 4 attacks base that re-roll wounds. Right now, my old counts-as belial is packing twin lightning claws, which is nasty enough.

The Rest Of the Army
Now, I've got a draft list, but I want to keep all my guys on foot in termiantor armor. The simple answer is that if anyone's wearing just regular old power armor, they're probably going to get shot to death.

The second note is that I'm pretty much doing this as a 'fun' army; it's all terminators but there's a glaring problem with the list: ...we're kinda short on anti-tank. Terminators can punch out tanks without much of a problem, but they're relying on the rend against anything more durable than AV11.

Now, the guy at the tourney brought triple Vindicators, as those help with hords, and S10 ordnance tends to do a number on armor. (Even my happy little Wave Serpents cringe at that...).

Otherwise, there's always the MM/HF speeder, but I'm kind of 'eh' on those since I got rid of all mine, and they're not exactly durable.

Land Raider DW is a totally different build; in part if I'm going to buy Land Raiders again I'm going to do Daemonhunters in LR, but also that's pretty much committing to 15 guys + Belial. NOT exactly a high model count, and if someone can KO Land Raiders, then I pretty much lose.

Draft List, 1850
Belial 130
Twin Lightning Claws

DW Terminator Squad 250
Assault Cannon, Chainfist

DW Terminator Squad 250
Assault Cannon, Chainfist

DW Terminator Squad 250
Assault Cannon, Chainfist

DW Terminator Squad 250
Assault Cannon, Chainfist

DW Terminator Squad 280
Assault Cannon, Chainfist, Apothecary

Vindicator 130
w/ Dozer Blade

Vindicator 130
w/ Dozer Blade

Vindicator 130
w/ Dozer Blade

Total: 1800

Right now, that's 50 points free. I could dump some of that into upgrades, or try to free up some more and slap it into a character or Dreadnought. Dreads are 125 minimum in the 'dex, which could get me a walking multi-melta. I could free up about the same for a Librarian, but to be honest I'd be looking at a Dreadnought for the cost so I can get something like, oh, a multi-melta in there.

There's also the temptation to drop an assault cannon for a cyclone missile launcher, just to designate a squad as the 'babysitter' and give me a few points back. Of course, I'm not sure what I'll do with the extra 10 points back.

EDIT: I'm like as not to just slap Extra Armor on all the Vindicators and call it a day. If I go with a Cyclone, it's probably Storm Bolters on the Vindies all around, for what it's worth.

It occurs that I COULD drop a DW squad for, say, a pair of dreads, but then I'd be cutting into my Troops and the number of scoring units. More importantly, I'd also be cutting any potential Deathwing Assault to two squads instead of 3. Deathwing is half, rounded up, and 1/2 of 5, rounded up, is 3. 1/2 of 4 is 2.

Fluff-wise, and modding
I'm really tempted to finally give in to my Thousand-Sons fandom and do these guys up with one eye each, and do them in red, probably with white piping.

Flying Bases: the Stable Way

I don't know if I can really justify calling this a step-by-step 'how to', but this stems from getting a lot of comments and looks when I break out the grav tanks. Now, I run about 4-6 of these guys at a time, and one of the first things I learned about GW flying bases is that a bump to the table will spin the tank around. (Or a heavy footfall, a stray thought, or what have you) and I finally hit on a solution.

Now, note how the tank actually looks pretty indistinguishable from other grav tanks. I mean, the one thing that this screw-basing makes mandatory is flocking the base, but is that such a big deal?

Now, here's the magic. You'll need: a nut, and a bolt. Oh, and the flying base, some superglue, and some epoxy. Honestly, it's not that hard and not that precise. I favor JB Stick-Weld, and I grabbed a half-dozen nuts and bolts of the same size since I'd rather not spend time trying to sort out a half-dozen flying bases before each game.

Note the nut superglued to the spot where the flying base would attach. While this pic doesn't cleanly show it, there's actually a mound over the base of the bolt. There's also a wash of black paint over the bolt, to dull the reflectivity some.

I've reversed the flying base to better show the small mound of epoxy. You see there in the middle? That's the bolt, held in place by superglue. Now, notice the grey area? That's a mound of JB Stick Weld holding the bolt in place. Then the third ring? Flocking.

The one way you can break this easily is to screw the bolt in too hard. Then it comes out the top, and pushes the nut away from the grav tank's hull. Then you need superglue to fix it, but it's not like that's a MAJOR fix.

I don't do this on my Seer Council as they're pinned, small, and I can get away with it. When I get around to building up Vypers, I expect I'll be using a thinner bolt, as it'll probably take more effort to hide it.

I also intend to carry this forth on my Tau army, as I like the low hovering look more than the stupid landing gear. They're HOVER tanks. They HOVER.

I've been contemplating ways to make the crisis suits in my upcoming Tau army stand out. The above pic is inspired by the old-school Battletech Battlemaster(s). I'll probably do away with the double-jointed legs, since Crisis suits are more about jumpng, and the double-jointed legs are more about walking effectively.

This is the old-school Battlemaster...

And this is the so-called 'Reseen' Battlemaster, since, ah, y'know, the original Battlemaster was kind of 'borrowed' from Dougram without a whole lot of alteration.

I'm also wondering if I should change the lower legs out. Maybe be a bit bulkier?

Tau Conversions: Crisis Suit, Hammerhead

As I said, I'd be converting up the Tau some. I'm not exactly a fan of having to pay major bucks for bits, so I'm experimenting with scratch-building the Missile Pods and Plasma Rifles. Additionally, I'm looking for a more interesting head and dynamic appearance.

Behold, the plasma rifle. Knee pads inspired by the suits over at Warhammer Tau. Probably not going to do those on every suit, but on leader-types...

This is the rear. Surprise. The booster configuration is inspired by White Glint's mech out of Armored Core: For Answer. Sidenote: the Japanese have some wonky naming conventions, as For Answer is the expansion-sequal to Armored Core 4, which is actually the 11th or so game in the Armored Core series. Go figure.

I'll admit that the Hammerhead's 'wings' are a two-part inspiration: 1) I've seen a lot of Valkyrie actio nand they're sweet, and 2) I got this Hammerhead in a trade and it was somewhat converted.

Hey, bonus shot of White Glint the Crisis Suit. Here's a closer shot, and you can see the Smart Missile conversions. Those missile boxes are off of Mechwarrior: Dark Age tanks. You'll see similar bits on the Broadsides.