Back to the business

Well, I finally picked up my modelling tools again after a long break in which I was away on holiday. Apologies for not posting, but, let's be perfectly honest, I didn't get to do any G/P/M, I actually just hung around on Dakka. That's all the Warhammer-related stuff I could claim to do...

Today, I decided (seeing as I couldn't buy new stuff due to the black hole of money) to make some terrain, considering that I am severely lacking in that department at present. So, remembering this tutorial that I had seen on Dakka, I got to work cutting up all my old sprues into exact-length pieces.

I didn't get very far due to fencing and orchestra, but I have managed to get the hang of it. Sprues are harder to cut because of their thickness, but somehow I'm managing it, at least my stanley knife and file are solid enough to handle it. So, I don't actually have anything picture-worthy at the moment, but I will soon be finished and then beautiful pictures will be up.

I've also been thinking about what to get next. I've ordered a White Scars Commander to play as either Kor'sarro Khan or a Captain w/ Relic Blade (on bike, obviously), and I should get that soon, as soon as I have time to go to the Battle Bunker. Other than that, I guess I'll just have to wait to earn enough money and get myself a Ravenwing Battleforce. Not only will it boost my bike numbers, but I'll also have a speeder and another Attack Bike, which i could then outfit w/ a Heavy Bolter. That's a pretty complete 1 000 points, I rate. Obviously coupled with one or two of my Tac squads...

It all depends, once again, on money. :( Bleak!

Bikers rule!

Really... I played a game against my brother this morning, a 500 point carnage, and my little bike conglomerate absolutely destroyed him!

I promised pics of the new bikers, here they are:

Sorry about the lateness, I have been really busy. Yes, that is a power fist on the Sarge, taken from the Wolf Guard Terminators sprue. I love the sheer weight of spare parts you get with that set, it's actually ridiculous to think you're paying the same amount for a pack of standard Marine Terminators.

My bikers proved very resilient in the game, and they managed to take out two mobs of boyz (20 models), as well as a few Deffkoptas. I also had a Tactical Squad and Dread with me, and they provided the supporting firepower and a suitable distraction for my opponent.

I am hoping to start painting soon, I have been reading up on how to paint white miniatures, and apparently it's a fat mission. Nevertheless, I shall persevere, I just need money for paints and brushes!

A game! At last!

So, yesterday was cool because I finally got to play a decent game at the Battle Bunker for once. Against Caspar and his custom chapter of conglomerates. I won the 750 carnage, and he narrowly defeated me in the subsequent Kill-Team.

I loved the look on his face when my terminator squads (one after the other) just walked through the two squads and chapter master he planted in the centre... My bikes also proved their worth, as they managed to take down his Venerable dreadnought after a long battle of attrition. All I'm saying, flanking the bikes on one side and the rest of the army on the other is a good idea, but only because his orbital bombardment scattered. Besides, I think a chapter master is too expensive relative to his benefits for a carnage game, but he did manage to effectively squash my standard Terminators before they took over the centre.

Anyways, afterwards we set up the terrain really city-like and extremely dense. Caspar whipped out his Kill-team and I set about defending a stolen Rhino (which had magically gone up to AV14 and he now had to meltabomb it for some strange reason). Very close, the building-mounted lascannon was pumping at ruins and trying to squash the KT but they managed to get their last two men around and destroy the objective with a healthy bomb placement.

In addition to this, I bought a bike squad and set about building them as soon as I got back home. I'm still sorting out the problems with the bikes overbalancing, I really don't want to base them. Sorry I didn't get any pictures, I will try today.

Minimum Squad Size

Talk about needing more than two bikes per squad...

Anyways, here is a loose battle report of how my chilled game against my brother went last night, as best as I can remember.

White Scars 5th Company
Captain w/power sword
Tactical Squad w/flamer
Bike & Attack Bike w/multi-melta (75pts)
Terminator Assault Squad

vs

Waaagh! Paskal
Warboss w/shoota and power klaw
Boyz mob w/big shoota
Boyz mob w/big shoota
Nobz mob
Deffkopta Squad

500pt Carnage

Turn 1
I moved my army forward behind the sparse terrain, keeping the Terminators in reserve. Unfortunately none of my army fired. Paskal then moved his entire horde forward and managed to take a wound off my Attack Bike and killed my 'nilla biker with missiles from a Kopta.

Turn 2
Terminators failed their reserve roll. I realized my bike wasn't going to do much, so I moved it out to fire at the koptas. My marines stayed where they were, safe behind cover. My bike shooting, unfortunately, didn't do much, and the Attack Bike was destroyed at the start of the next turn. Paskal planted the Warboss in the center of the table with his hordes surrounding it, waiting for me to attack.

Turns 3 and 4
I moved my Marines to assault the Koptas after a hail of fire from their bolt pistols. They managed to cause only 1 wound due to poor hitting, but at least they weren't killed by the counter-attack. Then, Paskal moved one boyz mob and his Nobz to engage in the assault, and a brutal battle ensued, with two or three casualties on each side. My marines thankfully passed their morale check. The Terminators still failed to arrive, and the massive melee ground to another halt as at the end of turn 4, only the Koptas had been ousted.

Turn 5
Finally, my Terminators deep-struck by teleport on the other side of the table, and sort of camped as they couldn't assault, and took a casualty from boy shooting (!). The massive melee was thinning out but still refused to be resolved, and Paskal was disappointed that his boyz were failing to overwhelm the enemy (I recall at this point there was still the Captain and 2 Marines standing). The Warboss charged into my Terminators as the boyz were out of range, and he promptly took out a Terminator, leaving 2 dead.

Turn 6
In the swirling melee off-center, only the Captain was left, but he was slaying orks by the truckload, yet this time his last wound popped off. The Warboss was finally slain after taking out yet another two Terminators, leaving only the sergeant. He promptly moved towards the table center, and the boyz mob retaliated with an assault. Then, something incredible happened: eight wounds on a 2+ armour save... In all probability, I was dead. But no! Terminator armour prevailed and all were saved. The counter-attack only felled one boy, but it was enough to keep me in the center. The game-end roll came up 1, so I won the day with 1 model left on the table.



I hope I'll be able to buy another bike today!

I actually have bikes now!

Yesterday, scared that our local Battle Bunker was going to have its prices increased tomorrow, I grabbed all my money and headed off. Turns out it wasn't, because it had just received a giant order in excess of two thousand pounds from GW via Gibraltar (don't ask! I don't understand it either...) and so prices will stay pretty much the same for a while. A potential issue is the fact that I want to request a White Scars Bike Commander, and so GW will probably laugh in our faces because they haven't got around to making a finecast of it yet, but we have to wait and see.

Anyways, I bought a single bike set and an attack bike, and put them together last night. These are them:

(sorry these pictures aren't that great, I'll take better ones when I get back home later)

So these are actually the first two bikes I have in my White Scars army proper... That's good, I guess. Hopefully more will come along soon!

Yeah, welcome to the new blog!

This is it. After last night's epiphany (read below), I have decided to a) call my blog something decent, and b) manage it from the same profile as my "life and times" one. So, last night's epiphany:

Yesterday i was sitting doing nothing, and I decided to make a swift strikeforce of around 1500 points based around Tigurius. Oh yeah, and lots of bikes. Eventually, I realized that heavy guns were not my calling! I was meant for greater things! Screw the Ninth Chapter, although they were pretty cool at first. After thinking about army lists I realized that my proposed Carnage list was crap, and so I decided to once and for all switch to bikes, and lots of them. White Scars it is, and I am now officially a White Scars player. I'm keeping the bad-ass Terminator Assault squad though, and incorporating it into my lists, because I just love Terminators.

So, good thing I didn't get around to painting my army. I don't think the cyan scheme will ever get around, but I'm happy with white and red. Or maybe even make them white and black in the recesses, like Imperial Stormtroopers (the Star Wars ones, that is). I'll jepp the history of the Ninth Chapter online, maybe even finish someday. Just in case people aren't catching up with the news, I'll keep the old blog online for a bit as well, but this one is definitely here to stay.

White Scars Forever!!!

The Ninth Chapter

Its history is now beginning to take shape! Check it out by clicking on the above tab. Other than that, I have some photos from last week's battles...

lightning claws vs power fists.. hmm

a healthy dose of revenge (and the bad-ass pose only helps!!)

it's a BRAAAAWL!!! just the Sergeant left against a tide of greenskins. well, greyskins. they're still very numerous!

Hopefully I'll get them painted soon! And/or buy more units!

GW is asking for trouble!

Well, the price hikes and shipping blockades are major contestion points on Dakka. I'm not too bothered about the independent retailers thing, because my local Battle Bunker is official, but the price rises are a fat inconvenience, especially as the majority of my "income" or potential allowance savings goes into fencing equipment.

Anyways, this means that my army is going to take a lot longer then expected. Next buy will be either scouts with sniper rifles, or that long-awaited predator.

Oh yeah, my testruns of the new Terminators are up!

==//begin battle report
For the test drives, I decided to run a linear game on my ~7' tabletop, with the units starting 3D6" away from each other, and normal rules apply from there, except for the fact that they can only move backwards and forwards on the "line". This is what happened:

TESTDRIVE1: Assault Terminators (Sam) vs Vanilla Terminators (Guy)

Armies started 15" apart, roll-off for advantage won by me!

The heinous Chaos traitors have been sought out... and the newest recruits have been sent off after them!

My one-minded strategy was to advance as far forwards as possible, as I had no ranged weapons whatsoever. As I did that for the first turn, Guy retreated and unleashed some shots, which failed to dent my armour. Then, I advanced again, but I was still out of assault range. Guy thought it was time to take the initiative and charged into my formation after releasing a withering hail of fire. He reckoned he couldn't stay out of range much longer, might as well get the bonus Attack for assaulting.

Power weapons charged up, Guy scored 1 unsaved wound, while I retaliated with a fail from my lightning claws. Then, the heavy weapons geared up. I scored 3 unsaved wounds with the thunder hammers, but Guy managed to hold steady in time to deliver a crushing counter with 4 unsaved wounds coming from his power fist.

Guy wins by Wipeout! A bit disappointing for my Terminators, really.

TESTDRIVE2: Assault Terminators vs 10-man Space Marine Squad

Armies started 11" apart, roll-off for advantage won by Assault Terminators.

The Terminators have been sent out to deal punishment on a squad of rogue Marines that have allowed their souls to be corrupted by Chaos...

It looks as though luck is not on the side of the Marines, as they were in Assaulting range from the very beginning of the game, and thus their boltguns would be of no use. The Terminators crashed straight into their ranks, and the neatly-ordered squads were now a conglomeration of flaying bodies and melee action!

Everyone had Initiative 4, so the thunder hammer models would have to survive numerous rifle-butt blows before they could unleash death. Lightning claws attacked first, quickly dispatching two marines, while the counterattack, rolling very dismally, failed to even cause a wound. The thunder hammers readied themselves, and then (rather disappointingly) caused only 3 wounds. Th Marine squad failed their morale check, and suffered 5 wounds, of which 1 went unsaved. The combat would drag on for another turn...

Lightning claws again struck, dispatching yet another traitorous Marine! With four models left, resistance seemed futile, and although a wound was caused, it failed to penetrate the Terminator armour. The thunder hammers saw off the last of the opposing squad, and the Terminators were victorious, having suffered no casualties whatsoever.

TESTDRIVE3: Assault Terminators vs 20 Ork Boyz

Now we get down to the nitty-gritty. It'll was interesting to see whether the plentiful attacks of the boyz would be enough to bring the Terminators down.

A little bit changed for this scenario, as I felt that 3D6" was too close a starting distance, so I added another die to the mix. The armies now started 13" apart, and going first were the Terminators, again.

The usual advance took place, and then the boyz unleashed a tremendous salvo of 24 shots, of which 1 penetrated the seemingly impenetrable armour. I decided to remove a thunder hammer Terminator and see how that went down... The boyz then charged headlong and rather foolishly into my formation, and the combat began. Lightning claws quickly eviscerated two orks, but more rapidly poured in as 71 counter-Attacks rained down on the Terminators. Each blow was filtered through, first 4+, then 5+, then finally passing a 2+ armour save.I watched in grim horror as the 20 dice that caused wounds were rolled, and only two 1s came up! It wasn't over yet, and at the very least some more boyz would be taken down before the Terminators fell!

Thunder hammers shattered through the ork line, and, believe it or not, 3 hit, but a triple 1 was rolled to wound with just a 2+ needed to dent the ork line! The battle was lost, but formalities must be observed... 18 orks attacked again, but the valiant Terminators' luck held out. This time, only the sergeant was left, and he crushed a single boy under the might of a thunder hammer. Again, the combat was drawn, but the next flurry of ork axes was enough to dispatch the courageous sergeant, who managed to take another boy with him as he went down. The numerous Attacks of the orks had proved too much for the slow and purposeful pace of the Terminators!

TESTDRIVE4: Assault Terminators vs Ork Nobz & Warboss

Armies start 15" apart, Orks kick off the action.

This created a bit of a dilemma, as the most favourable strategy for both sides would be to stay put, but if we did that then nothing would happen. I decided that the Nobz, being orks as they are, would be a bit stupid and move in first, plus I felt that the Terminators needed a bit of a morale boost after their crushing defeat.

The Nob salvo unsurprisingly only nicked the shiny new armour, and then the Terminators moved in for the kill. Lightning claws failed to harm the Warboss, but disptched a Nob from the crowd. The Nobz then managed to cause an unsaved wound, and a Terminator fell victim to the brutal Orks. The Warboss caused four wounds, and only one was saved by the 5+ invulnerable. The thunder hammers struck, and the Nobz were knocked reeling, and the Warboss was slain in three quick blows as the dice gods finally favoured the brave Marines. The Nobz failed their morale check, and so fell back 10" as the Terminators consolidated 5".

The Nobz could not regroup, and so another 8" were traversed. They were very close to the edge of the table, and as the Terminators closed in, the Nobz finally fled the battlefield the next turn. Another victory!
==//end battle report

Anyways, hope you guys out there stay in the hobby even after the price hikes. Love the game, hate the corporate behind it! (damn I wish I had a big army!)

Finished (quite a while ago!)

Aah, school server won't let me post pictures!!!!

Actually, my Terminators were finished a long time ago (last week) but I haven't had time to post up and Blogger has been down as well...

Will take some better pictures, this was a very rushed one. I'll probably replace it at some stage. Anyways, I left a sheet where I'd written down my recent testdrive battle report at home, and the full story will come out as soon as school finishes, or as soon as I have some time at home rather.

Warhammer-wise, many of you might have seen the debates raging on DakkaDakka and related sites about Games Workshop's latest price hikes and the phasing out of metal figurines. With regards to all this, I hope I can continue to buy new things at the current rate. I'll try start working during the exam period, and that may bring in some extra cash... unfortunately I also have to buy fencing gear, so that does split whatever income I have.

We'll just have to see what happens, but I won't be chuffed if Land Raiders start costing me the price of a small car.

New Kit!

Sorry about the late post, I had no time to write a proper one yesterday. Anyway, I managed to get to the Battle Bunker yesterday after school. Turns out they didn't have Predators (cost) so I ended up buying a pack of Wolf Guard Terminators (also par of my army list). I'm going to outfit three with thunder hammers and storm shields, and two of them with lightning claws. This should make them formidable opponents, especially when they jump out of a Land Raider led by either a Terminator Chaplain or Librarian (I'll still have to make up my mind). Anyway, here are some pictures of the kit, ready to be reduced to separate components over the next day or so:

And that's on of me looking super-stoked ^ !!


So far I've cut out all the legs and torsos, as well as a few thunder hammers and storm shields. The Sergeant's cape/cloak/pet bear looks pretty insane, I can't wait to stick them all together and let them loose on my battlefield!


So far, I still don't have a name for my chapter. I think they'll be sort of renegades, and long standing allies of many other chapters of the Marines. They'll sport the trophies of battles with their brothers, hence all the wolf cloaks fitting in to the otherwise vanilla-y Marine army. I've already decided on a colour scheme, and I'll paint stuff up as soon as I have the tools, which should be soon. Cyan as an undercoat, and then highlights will be red and gold, same as the ultramarines.


I'll put up more pictures when I get the chance to, but for now I'll just have to wait until I can get back home and continue working on them!

Anticlimax!!

Okay, first off, the Magic: the Gathering (which is a super lame card game people occasionally play at the Battle Bunker when us Warhammerites leave them a free table, oh how kind and generous we are!) players in my area are absolute n00bz. I'm telling you, they locked me out of the Battle Bunker today in an attempt to wreak havoc on humanity's defences at planet Samshaus (currently heavily plagued by war against Waaagh! Samsyoungerbrothersunnamedarmy). Result: no Predator, super bleakness for the rest of the day. oh yeah, did I mention how the Magic: the Gathering players are epic n00blets?

Anyway, humanity will not fall so easily! I shall never give up, and thus tomorrow after school but before the debating in the evening, I am going to  the Battle Bunker and claiming my new recruits. Hopefully I shall be able to get a squad of Assault Terminators or at the very least a paint set in addition to my latest mechanized addition. I was so amped for a build-job today!! Curse the Chaotic intentions of those n00bz!!! (by "those n00bz", I mean the Magic: the Gathering players in case I haven't made that clear already)

Harumph. Tomorrow I shall have my Predator, else the wave of Orks and Chaos and general Tyranid squishies shall be my downfall!! Forward, in the name of the Emperor!!!

Oh yeah, sorry about the emotionalitiness in the post today, but as you can probably gather I am super bleak thanks to some n00bz. I have been saving up, preventing my mum from stealing my money, finding a free weekend when nothing is happening, and actually cycling to the Battle Bunker (about 600 metres) to buy the damn tank! All of life is against me!!!


It's actually not all of life, it's just Magic: the Gathering. What n00bz.

PCAL1 Review time!

Well, I got some comments on it... I realized it's very "defensive" in a way, but I guess that's what you need for carnage, and that' what I've been told. I'm not going to repeat my entire response, but you can always follow the discussion on DakkaDakka , and feel free to suggest any improvements, but maybe refrain from suggesting I change my entire army list :) I rate it's not that bad!

I'll buy the stuff, and like I said, worst-case scenario I'll use them for my 1650 or 2000 point armies... a Land Raider here and there cannot be a bad thing, and will hurt whatever you point it at. I guess the best indicator of whether my army list works is whether it works in practice.

We'll see what I can root out of the hobby tomorrow, maybe a non-carnage 750pt army list (!?)

Hmm... Let's think about this army list

Posted my 750 carnage space marines army list on Dakka, hopefully the others will help me finalize it. This is it:


HQ Ortan Cassius OR Chaplain w/Terminator Armour and Storm Bolter 
125 / 130  
Troops Scouts w/sniper rifles and missile launcher 
85  
Heavy Support Predator w/ sponson mounted heavy bolters 
85  
Elites Terminator Assault Squad (2x lightning claws, 3x thunder hammers) 
200 
Dedicated Transport Land Raider OR Land Raider Redeemer w/ pintle-mounted multi-melta
250  
745/750 points  


My battle plan is as follows: Land Raider (supported by Predator) goes to center and camps there w/ chaplain and Terminators inside it 
Scouts provide long-range support 
Chaplain/Cassius makes Terminators Fearless so they will not retreat 
Any infantry will be taken down by Terminators, Predator heavy bolters and/or Flamestorm Cannons in LRR 
Any Daemons and the like will be taken down (or at least weakened) by sniper rifles, autocannon, and other heavy weapons 
Any vehicles (specifically AV14) will be taken down by Lascannons on LR, alternatively multi melta on LRR and scout missile launcher
The Predator alone can take care of everything else...  


Now I have to make a choice between Cassius/Chaplain, and LR/LRR. This is still a hypothetical army, but it will tell me what to buy next.


I'll see what comes up... I'll buy the predator and scouts first because they're pretty much set, but I have to wait for the rest.


My cautions (which I haven't posted yet) are so far:
I think that Cassius' Toughness of 6 will make up for the fact that he only has 3+ armour as opposed to 2+. However, I'm not too sure if his Infernus will cause assaulting limitations as he is pretty much tied to the squad. 
Also, the Land Raider will be more effective than the Redeemer because it can start firing from the beginning with its range of 48" instead of having to wait for enemies to get into 24" to shred them with its assault cannons.


Will post improvements later...

What I am doing when I should be doing other things...

1. Writing this
2. Posting on Dakka
3. Looking at army lists
4. Deliberately not doing history work.... daymn!


Anyway, there really isn't much to do at school right now, so I'm fulfilling my proposed quota of at least one post a day (This is good). Unfortunately, I still have to sort out a lot of stuff at school, esp relating to music and other cultural things, which will make me busy (this is not that great). However, I am counting down the days until Sunday, when I can finally buy something! (warhammer related, that is)

A boring day...

...partly because I have done no Warhammering at all: no rampaging across the tabletop, no daydreams of paint-jobs, and no analysis of army lists in my spare time even! However, it looks as though this weekend I might be able to source that long-sought-after predator tank!! I will outfit it with heavy bolter sponsons and then set it loose on some demons hopefully by the end of next week. Amped!!


In the meantime, I shall be working on posting up my 750 Carnage army list and my motivations behind choosing what I chose... coming soon!

A start (of sorts)

Whew! Finally got it going.... have a blog now, and a place to put all my Warhammer ramblings and battle reports (even if no-one reads them!). Am eagerly awaiting the confirmation email from the machine spirit of Dakka Dakka forums, and you should be able to find me there as well (same username).


Sign off now, can't wait to buy that Predator and paint it up...