Fourth of July and First 6th Edition Game Battle Report

Greetings once again!

It is the Fourth of July here in the US of A and since it was a Holiday (and we both had the day off) Mordian 7th got together to try out the new 6th Edition of Warhammer 40k. Since it was going to be a bit of a learning experience for the both of us we decided to go with a smaller game at 1500pts,

Here are a couple of shots of the opposing armies (Blood Angels versus World Eaters):

 In typical Mordian 7th fashion the table was setup in an urban theme:

We both agreed to play a randomly chosen game from the new rulebook and thus it was:
Game Played: The Relic
Battlefield Deployment: Hammer and Anvil (played lengthwise on the table which was a nice change)
Battlefield Terrain: Built using Narrative Terrain (there was scatter terrain which does stuff in this edition)

I ended up naming the game 'Battle on the Outskirts of Moonopolis'. The warlord traits ended up being: Night Attacker (Blood Angels) and Dust of a Thousands Worlds (World Eaters). With all of that it was time to roll for deployment initiative which the Blood Angels won and deferred by electing to go second.

The deployment of the armies:

The above shot shows the Blood Angel Baal Predator after its 'Scout' move.

With the armies set, the game could begin!

World Eaters Turn 1: Bale Dred comes slamming down in his drop pod and the W.E. Phobos-pattern Land Raider rolls out to unload on the B.A. Baal Predator.....doing Nothing! You can see the 'Relic' sitting peacefully in the middle of the road.

Blood Angels Turn 1: B.A. Land Raider Redeemer moves forward to gun down the W.E. Tactical Squad moving through the ruins but fails to cause any wounds.The Redeemer also manages to hit the W.E. Dred which manages to 'cover save' due to the intervening forest. Not to be outshown by the Redeemer, the B.A. Predator Drivers are a little touched in the head and decided to drive through the Fuel Depot (scatter terrain piece) to get into firing position on the W.E. Tactical Squad. Both passed their difficult terrain tests and both managed to not cause the Fuel Depot to explode! Only the Baal Predator manages to get into position and opened up on the W.E. Tactical Squad causing 1 unsaved wound which happened to kill the missile launcher armed W.E.!

Predators driving THROUGH the Fuel Depot!

World Eaters Turn 2: W.E. Tactical Squad moves into the building now that their heavy weapon is gone. W.E. Dred moves into the 'Mysterious Forest' which ended up being 'Pleasant' due to the Chart Roll (1). W.E. Phobos Land Raider destroys the B.A. Predator with a precision lascannon shot to the side causing a huge explosion (which killed a W.E. Tactical Marine as well I believe). The W.E. Dred charges the B.A. Redeemer through the forest but failing to cause any damage at all.

Silly W.E. Dred, he should know that Furioso Dreds and the only way to go!

How sad! Poor Predator did not quite make it behind the building to block line of sight.

Blood Angel Turn 2: Both Jump Squads arrive via Deep Strike, however there was a mishap (rolled very poorly) with the Librarian Jump Squad destroyed by slamming into a building (rolled a 1 on the chart). The other squad arrives safely and begins to position for the grab of the 'Relic'. The B.A. Land Raider Redeemer backs away from the W.E. Dred and 'freems' it with its Multi-Melta destroying the Dred (rolled a 7 on the chart). The Baal Predator continues to 'hunt' the W.E. Tactical Squad attempting to hide in the ruins killing several more W.E. marines.

Ssshhhh!!!! We are hunting World Eaters!

The left over W.E. marines after the Baal unloads.

Death of the W.E. Dred!

World Eaters Turn 3: The W.E. Storm Eagle 'zooms' onto the table traveling quite a ways across the table. The W.E. Terminators and Terminator Captain teleport down near the Drop Pod's Locator Beacon and shoot down an B.A. assault marine and the assault meltagunner (nearest model). The W.E. Phobos Land Raider attempts to lascannon a couple of the B.A. assault marines and manages to kill one outright. The W.E. Tactical Squad left-overs decide to make a break for the 'Relic'.

Warning! Danger close! Terminators make a sudden appearance!

The W.E. Tactical Marines make a run for it!

Blood Angel Turn 3: The B.A. Land Raider Redeemer moves forward towards the newly arrived W.E. Terminators and unloads Squad Pellario and the Epistolary Librarian closer to the Terminators. The Baal unloads on the W.E. Tactical Squad causing 1 Rending and 5 normal wounds, enough to wipe the W.E. Tactical Squad off the board. The Land Raider Redeemer unloads on the Terminators but 3 normal and 1 invulnerable save latter the W.E. Terminators still stand. The newly disembarked Squad Pellario and Librarian open up on the Terminators. The hail of bolter fire forced a lot of successful armor saves, however the meltagun and the Librarians 'Smite' power managed to kill all of the normal Terminators (the last falling via a 'Watch Out Sir!' action to save the Terminator Captain.

The death of the W.E. Terminators leaving the Terminator Captain wondering what happened!

The assault squad moving into position to jump the 'Relic' at the end of the game (and away from the Land Raider).

World Eaters Turn 4: The Storm Eagle slows to 'Hover-mode' turning into a fast skimmer and now more vulnerable! W.E. Terminator Captain makes a run towards the 'Relic'. The W.E. Phobos Land Raider opens up with everything on the Baal Predator only managing to knock a Hull Point out. The Storm Eagle opens up on the B.A. land Raider Redeemer knocking out a Hull Point while the vengeance launchers target the B.A. assault squad but fail to hit anything but his own Drop Pod.

Blood Angel Turn 4: Librarian casts 'Enfeeble' on the Terminator Captain causing with to become weak and unsure of his footing (everything was dangerous terrain for him). Baal Predator moves into position to hopefully shoot down the Storm Eagle but fails to penetrate on 6 hits. This won't bode well for the hard working Baal next turn. The B.A. Land Raider Redeemer takes a Hull Point off the Storm Eagle with its assault cannon while Squad Pellario and the Librarian force 2 unsaved wounds on the W.E. Terminator Captain leaving the 'enfeebled' captain with only 1 wound left.

World Eaters Turn 5: The 'enfeebled' W.E. Terminator Captain (1 wound left) crawls into the Land Raider Phobos saving himself (and probably damning himself in the eyes of Khorne), The Beserkers finally get out of the Storm Eagle. The Storm Eagle completely destroys the Baal Predator (rolled a 7 on the chart). The W.E. Land Raider Phobos pops smoke for some reason, maybe they were spooked by the Terminator Captain staggering on-board? The recently disembarked Beserkers start to 'run' towards the 'Relic' as this could be the last turn!

The Death of the very hard working Baal Predator. A sad day for the Sons of Sanguinius.

The smoke covers the W.E. Land Raider Phobos.

Blood Angel Turn 5: Knowing this could be the last turn of the game it was time to push for the 'Relic'. The jump assault troops jump on the 'Relic' securing its possession. Squad Pellario and the Librarian move up to offer fire support to the now exposed jump troops failing to kill any Beserkers. The B.A. Land Raider Redeemer moves up to immolate the Beserkers with its flamestorm cannons killing 4 Beserkers. Knowing an assault is coming their way if the game continues the jump squad kills 1 Beserker with bolt pistols.

After all of the shooting there were still too many W.E. Beserkers still around just waiting to pounce on the now encumbered (with the 'Relic') B.A. assault squad.

This was the end of Turn 5 and we had to roll to see if the game continued...........

World Eaters Turn 6: Game Continues! The W.E. Land Raider Phobos shoots into the rear of the B.A. assault squad killing a marine and the priest! The W.E. Beserkers fail to wound any of the B.A. assault squad with their bolt pistols. The Beserkers then charged the B.A. assault squad (which failed to wound with their overwatch reaction) butchering all but 1 B.A. assault marine who somehow managed to hold his ground maintaining control of the 'Relic'.

Blood Angel Turn 6: The Blood Angels didn't have much to do so we continued with the epic 'last man standing' close combat over the control of the 'Relic'. The Beserkers failed to wound the last B.A. while he manages to cause an unsaved wound to the Beserkers winning him the combat and thus keeping control of the 'Relic'!

The game came to an end after Turn 6 so Mordian 7th and I set out to figure out who won the very bloody game. The results with various side 'victory point' options:

Breaking the Line: 0 (B.A.) 0 (W.E.)
First Blood: B.A. for killing the W.E. Missile Launcher Marine +1
Relic: B.A. controlled +3

Blood Angel VICTORY 4-0.

I really enjoyed my first game of 6th edition and look forward to another game sometime soon (I only get about 4 or so games a year). I will have some thoughts on what I took away from the change in editions later but for now I want to say I really enjoyed all the changes! Thank you for looking and putting up with my first battle report!

Misc. SciFi Minis for Dark Heresy

Greetings once again! As a small reward to myself and as a break from all things Star Wars I decided to build a few models for use in an upcoming Dark Heresy campaign I will be running. I love finding alternate SciFi miniatures for use in various SciFi Roleplaying games and I was able to track down a couple of new options on EBay.

First up are a couple of Female Officer figures from a gentleman named rattlesnakejake19 on EBay. I found these miniatures to be nice if a little thin. There was some clean up involved but not too much. Here are some views in the various stages:

Here are the ladies after assembly and some liquid greenstuff to blend in any small gaps and resin bubbles. All in all I found the castings to be fairly free of defects but there were some.

I think the grey primer starts to show some of the finer details which were hard to see when the miniature was solid white or tan.

I also found on EBay a gentleman in England named titanslayerminatures that produces Si-fi Crusader knights that I thought would make excellent Elite Guards for a Noble House or for a Guild House in Dark Heresy. They are meant to be used as an Inquisitor's Crusader Henchman but I changed them up a bit (I have the GW Crusaders as well). Here are some views of the new Elite Guards of House Haxter (or some such group):

The shields are very cool and the two that were not used went into the bitz box for a future project!

The swords did not have an overly 'powered' look to them although one of them had a nicely sculpted Inquisition 'I' around the hilt.

Here is the group all converted and greenstuffed to blend away any gaps. The use of Cadian Guard arms seemed to work out well and it makes them look more like a small unit of Elite Guards.

Some close up shots after the primer stage which definitely helps show the detail on these miniatures. I thought they turned out really well considering I paid less than $15.00 US to get these from England.

While I was shopping with rattlesnakejake19 on EBay I noticed that he also sold some replacement heads for use with plastic guardsman. I liked the look and bought a set to see what the quality was like. I have several different squads of 'traitor' guardsman and I thought these would make a fine addition to the forces of Chaos. I have used GW's plastic Cadians in several of the other units of 'traitor' guard so I wanted to try something a little different for these guys. I dug into the Guard Bitz box (nowhere as impressive as Mordian7th's closet of doom) and found some old Rogue Trader-era plastic guardsman. These look nothing like the current plastic guardsman from GW so I thought that was a decent place to start. Here are a few WIP shots of the Rezzo Chem Fiends:

Still quite a bit of work to go on these guys. Need to get some more backpacks (modified guard flamer tanks) for the boys and then fill in the arm gaps with greenstuff (new Cadian arms do not work super well with the old R.T. era plastic guardsman), run some tubing from the backpacks into the back of the helmets. I might add some fiddly little bits around the belts but I want to make sure there are no 'Eagle-Lickers' in this group. On a side note: I think the heads would have worked better on the Cadian plastics but I did not want to go that route and have these look to similar to the rest of my 'traitor' guard.

Thanks for looking and comments are always welcome!

First Sculpting Attempt

Greetings once again Internet!

While at Origins Game Faire this year I took a sculpting class from Sandra Garrity. I have never attempted to sculpt anything before so I went into the class as a complete novice. The class was about sculpting armor, wings, and scales; since I plan on doing some Heresy-era Salamanders the scales portion of the class was perfect.

So here is my attempt at drake scales:

I was going for an aged and rugged look to the scales and I think the small ridges along the scales help convey that. I will have to work on some smaller versions for the Mk IV shoulder pads I plan on using on the Salamanders.

There are a couple of things I learned from the class:

1) I am not the only one that uses an Xacto knife for everything (including sculpting).
2) The 'clay' tools I bought were way to large for what is needed

Now to practice and practice and practice some more. All in all I am quite pleased with how my first sculpting attempt came out. Thanks for looking!

Origins 2012 Gaming Terrain

Greetings once again! Well Origins 2012 has come and gone and I must say that I had a blast! The gaming was awesome and the sculpting classes were enjoyable. I learned how to sculpt some very nice scales for an upcoming Crusade-Era Salamanders Army and after a little more practice I will show you all some of the things I will be working on. To tide you over I present some of the wonderful gaming terrain I saw will out there. It seems Warhammer 40k has a fairly strong presence at Origins every year. Here are the pics:

There was a Doctor Who booth in the dealer's room:

I thought this was an awesome display although I am not sure which game it was for.

Some nice 28mm fantasy terrain.

I thought this was awesome but I could not figure out which game it was for. It was an enormous Egyptian temple complex but there was a 'Stargate' at one!

15mm Napoleonic Game! Viva la France!

This is a big Pearl Harbor game that was done in 1/2800 scale I believe.

Another 15mm Napoleonic game.

Battletech terrain complete with large defense lasers!

US Marines versus Nazi Zombies!

The top comes off showing the inside!

This is just a small portion of an 8' wide 30' long table. I got this little piece because that is where the action was going on.

A rather cool Alien Head I stumbled across in the miniature room.

I thought this was the best 40k terrain I have seen in a long while, the table was beautiful!

Thanks for looking!

Something a little different and shorter

Greetings once again!

I have been so very busy getting ready for the Summer Convention Season and the first one is only weeks away. Origins 2012 (May 30-June 3) is being held in Columbus, OH and I travel out there each year to meet with good friends, run a few Star Wars RPGs, do a little hobby shopping, take some hobby classes, and drink too much! I have been editing a couple of Star Wars modules (which will be run at Origins) which has taken up a fair amount of my time lately (along with working 50+ hours a week). So to reward myself a little I decided to paint up my roleplaying character for use this summer.

I would like to present to you: D'Abu'Da Abassk, Sullustan Privateer and Hero of the Rebellion!

The miniature comes from West End Games from the mid to late 80's! There is not a whole lot of detail (and what there was is not cast very clearly) on these old miniatures. The miniature also came with a solid metal base which I cut off so I could attach him to a resin tech-base (to represent the starships he usually can be found on).

I have had a couple of requests for photos which include something to give the miniature a sense of scale (especially useful with this tiny miniature) so here is a picture with a US Dime and a British Pound coins to give it a sense of how small the miniature is:

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!

David