What If? – French Armour in Operation Sealion.

I got invited to join in an ongoing operation sea lion campaign with my early war French. The game is 500 points, and I’ve decided to take a silly tank platoon.

It has been a great opportunity to build one of my Three Warlord Games Char b1 bis, that arrived at Christmas, and 3 of the Renault ft-17’s I bought from Mad Bob Miniatures last year.

The current list is

Char b1 bis, regular 260 (command tank)
Renault ft\17 regular 35
Renault ft-17 regular 35
Renault ft-17 regular 35
Renault ft-18 regular 65

Light howitzer regular 0

Citroen kegresse armoured car, inexperienced 52

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It might do well, it might not, but it should be fun to play!

 

 

 

 

New armies, new game!

ok, so I’ve been really lax in sharing my painted armies, some of which I’m quite proud of!

I have a new phone, and new apps, so I’m gonna see if it’s easier to post content like this!

I have a weird war ersatz army, good and evil armies for lotr sbg and other bits and bobs to start sharing!

I must do this every January…

Just realised I have about 10 drafted blog posts all half finished and no actual content on here!

Keep and eye out for the following:

K47 wierd war Germans,

Bolt Action French

Blood Bowl Chaos Pact

More 30k World Eaters.

Just as soon as i finish writing them up and posting them !

Suddenly! Epic 40k

This weekend, I have managed to only paint a single model, and an Epic scale one at that!

This is my Tzeenchian ‘counts as’ Banelord Titan. I may have gone a little bit overboard with the weathering on the metals, with rust, oil and verdigris on the metalwork, and some heat damage on the Magna-melta  to boot! The faces on the flat panels didnt quite go to plan, but they were fun to do!

 

I am pleased with how he turned out. Next up is a pair of warhounds and some Slannesh Daemon engines to back him up. As well as a mountain of Deamon and mortal infantry that makes the list useable.

For anyone that actually reads this far, I actually won a game of 30k with my World Eaters! WOOOO! – I was gonna do a Battle rep. but I had left my camera in the car. Maybe next time eh?

My next scheduled game of 30k is 2500 points vs  admech at Black Dragon in Hinkley. I am gonna get my Malcador built and painted in prep for that, not that I expect to win, but new toys need building and painting! As ever, C&C are welcome. Thanks for reading!

-John

Weekly update 09/10/16

I planned on doing an update post with things I’ve been working on to go up on eitther Sunday or Monday each week in order to keep getting things done.

This week though, I have done next to nothing, Training at work, coupled with people being off and pulling overtime has left me with very little time for hobby. So, this week I have built a Contemptor with a single arm (magnetised OFC) and I have begun to paint my Dreadclaw Drop Pod.

Weathering so far is from a can of black spray, directed at the underside of the miniature and some basic blacklining with some washes into the recesses. I need to add the blue markings and Legion symbols.

My old metal Preadator has been Blacklined ready for painting this week too! although it means less chainaxes on the table everytime he sees play, its nice to have a bit of fire support from something that isn’t a Land Raider!

 

As ever, Thanks for reading!

-John

 

 

 

 

 

Holy Crap…

Wow, it has been over a year since my last post on here… I’m not dead, just working, studying and doing things slowly.

It probably didnt help that i made some terrain for the gorkamorka campaign that fizzled after about 3 games 😦

 

Looking Forwards though, since then I have started to build and paint a World Eaters Force for games in the Horus Heresy. I’m yet to win with them, but I’m still hopeful, and having found a local resevior of players nearby, I am excited to continue working on the army.

 

Here is one of my tac squads, and assault marines, all equipped with chainaxes. They need finishing off, but I wanted paint on them ASAP.

My Praetor with Paragon-ax and My Legion Praevian with Inducted Vorax Bodyguard. I love the Praetor, but the Vorax seem to just get shot off every game.

My painted Support section, two Dreadnoughts with Carapace Havok Launchers and a Vindicator. Next to the Vindi, you can also see my 1st two attack bikes, who belong to a squadron of 6 ATM.

So Far, I have lost vs 40k Eldar, and Two different players with Iron Warriors. So I have been buying new toys as my budget allows. I’m currently working on more assault marines, more attack bikes, a Dreadclaw drop pod and a twin CCW Contemptor. I also have some bike Apocatharies and a Malcador sitting ready to be put together.

 

Thanks for reading, C+C always welcome.

 

-Medivo

X Wing elimination tournament!

Sorry for yet another Xwing post  but I’ve signed up for an 8 man, single elimination tournament  with some interesting rules and wanted to share my thoughts on the subject:

The rules are:

– 40pt squadrons
– No large bases
– Must take two ships

This is really cool for a number of reasons,  but not having a shuttle avaliable makes me sad :,(

The low points value is going to limit the type and ps of avaliable ships, because lots of normally strong builds cost too much to fit into the format, such as super fell, corran  horn or anything in a defender!

From discussions I’ve seen being held on our local club’s facebook threads, the khiraxis fighter, y-wing, Z-95 and new T70 hold favour with the rebel and scum players, focussing on jousting strength and winning on or just after the first pass. This list is a great example of this school of thought:

Z-95 Headhunter: Black Sun Soldier (13)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Glitterstim (2)
Z-95 Headhunter: Black Sun Soldier (13)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Glitterstim (2)
— TOTAL ——- 38 pts

Thats a lot of dice for alpha striking! I can see it being a bit of a one-shot though and if you dont have an overwhelming  advantage you might struggle to see out he game.

Turrets cost a lot of points, so I think that one or two may see play but no more than one/list.

As far as Imperial discussion, arc dodgers seem to be in  favour, with either double interceptor w/autothrusters or a named pilot plus a basic tie fighter, im sure that a doubl tie/fo or double tie fighter might make an appearance.

Im tempted to try a basic academy pilot  paired with a sigma squadron phantom with some toys:

TIE Phantom: Sigma Squadron Pilot (25)
Stygium Particle Accelerator (2)
Intelligence Agent (1)
TIE Fighter: Academy Pilot (12)

I hope with this list that the PS 3 and inteligence agent means I can get some damage off on the phantom using its decloak moves, without suffering too much incoming fire, as agi 2 and an evade isnt the best defence in the game. With the limited points, Ps 3-5 is likely to be in the upper ranges  seen, unless there are named Tie fighters or F/O flying around, and gives the phantom a chance to alpha strike its target with its 4 or 5 dice attack.

If this format seems cool, feel free to try it yourself! I’m honestly not sure where James found it, but it’ll certainly shake things up for a couple of games!

If you have any ideas/ suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments section below!

Playing About With X-wing Lists

I really like xwing as a game, Its fast and fun with a lot of depth and hidden strategy at all levels of the game.

Since I’m not playing much in the way of Warhammer ATM, I find myself thinking about X-wing lists and tactics in the same way I used to ponder Warmachine when I first started blogging. (and after the pile of **** that is AOS, I doubt I’ll be playing much Warhammer in the near future).

Right now, I only play Imperials, partly to keep costs down, and also due to the massive range of ships and styles that exist across the 3 factions being really hard to first learn, and second play when I don’t exclusively play Xwing week-in-week-out. So all the following discussion is geared towards an Imperial-centric playstyle.

Currently, I’m flying a list with these two at the core:

TIE Defender: · Colonel Vessery (35)
Push The Limit (3)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE Advanced: · Darth Vader (29)
TIE/x1 (0)
Advanced Targeting Computer (1)

I’ve found that both Vader and HLC Vessery can lift a lot of weight either together or on their own, and putting a mk2 ion engine on a Defender is awesome!

The real problem I have is the last 24 points of the list, and I have tried a couple of variations:

Lambda-Class Shuttle: Omicron Group Pilot (21)
Ion Cannon (3)

– This one is my current favourite, I’m tempted to pull Ptl off of Vessery to add tactician as well, for maximum disruption.

– unfortunately, you might not get a late game shot out of the shuttle at all!

TIE Advanced: · Lieutenant Colzet (23)
TIE/x1 (0)
Fire Control System (0)

-Cozlet was really strong in testing, causing real problems for any enemy ship with damage on, because with the new deck, there are very few crits you can ignore! Fcs works really well for getting the lock onto the right target, even though his low pilot skill makes getting into range for a lock in the activation phase a lot harder!

-unfortunately, this gives me another low HP ship, with 2red on the attack, so he relies on his ability to be relevant, acting more like a support ship for the other two than his own entity.

TIE Bomber: Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)
Extra Munitions (2)
Assault Missiles (5)

-This one actually got focussed down straight away when I tried it, so swapping out the assault missiles for something cheaper and spending the points on ps4 or higher may be necessary before I fly it again. I might also take proxy mines x2 on it with munitions to create a hazard behind the initial ‘joust zone’ so I can K-turn, but my opponent has to risk the mines!

-no shields and atk/evade of two makes the bombers performance somewhat binary in my experience, it dither flys around on 3hp forever, or it dies in a single turn!

Thanks to everyone who read all of this, any comments, suggestions or links to other content is always appreciated!

Orktober return to Blogging

Orktober is just around the corner, and we in the area have decided to unearth and play some casual games of Gorkamorka!

I for one am incredably excited about this, as Gorkamorka was the first GW games system I ever owned. I wasn’t very old at the time, so the intricacies of the rules were lost on me for the most part, but the idea of screaming round a Mad Max-esque wasteland fighting other mobs really got my imagination fiired up!

Since then I have played in one or two Gorkamorka startups, but they tended to fizzle due to a small playerbase or one player getting an insurmountable advantage due to the RNG nature of the rules at times! In this most recent campaign, we have at least 5 unique mobs owned by different players, supplimented by fan-made rules hosted on The Unnamed Gorgamorka Site  Including a Speed Freaks Mob, A Renegade Motorcycle Club (played by me) and potentially some special weapons such as Burnas from modern 40k. We also have an oddmob of Diggas, thanks in part to the new Cultist figures from GW 🙂

In preparation for the coming Craziness, I have put together a Mob of Bikerz! and I plan on updating you all with my exploits and progress! Until then, I’ll leave you with some photos of my mob, and desert themed terrain that has been littering my desk for the last 2 months or so!

20/1/15: High Elf vs. Dark Elf Battle Report

Woo, I had a great Game on Tuesday night, although Martins list was not at all what I expected it to be! – also CaptainKarlsen, it was less unbalanced than you make it out to be! (that guy would call cheese if I put beastmen on the table!) We had a fun game, even though we called it at the top of turn 4, and then sat in the bar downstairs discussing DE, x-wing and 9th ed WFB for a while!

His list was:

Dreadlord, Halberd, cloak, X-bow, Crown of Command, Armour of Destiny.

Supreme sorceress, level 3 life, dispel scroll.

Manticore rider, Halberd, cloak, shield, Armour of Fortune, scaly skin on mount.

BSB, Flaming banner, cloak, X-bow, Heavy armour, Shield.

Sorceresss, Dark Pegasus, level 2 Dark magic, 6++ ward.

27 Crossbows, Full command, Shields.

20 Witch Elves, Full commmand.

5 Cold one Knights, Full Command.

5 Cold one Knights, Full Command.

5 Shades.

War Hydra, Flaming Breath

War Hydra, Flaming Breath.

 

My List can be found HERE

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Bizzarely, according to the Warriors of Warwick Comp this comes out as a +2 I think, which is harder than my list. Not really sure why though. It looks quuite soft on paper.

Anyway, on to the game!

DEPLOYMENT

I clustered my Ranged units together, with flyers on either side, ready to redeploy, or fly off as needed, Martin built a refused flank around the watchtower In the centre of the table near his deployment zone.,

High Elf Turn 1

Getting the 1st turn, I moved my units conservatively, redeploying the flyers on the left away from the 30 repeater Crossbow block. The Noble on Eagle swung wide to threaten the flanks of any advancing Knights. The Bolt Throwers  shot several of the Witch Elves, reducing their scaryness a little!

Dark Elf Turn 1

Martin Responds By moving forwards, garrisoning the Shades in the tower, and setting up some counter-charges from the Hydra  and Manticore if my flyers charge into the Witches and Knights on the right-hand flank. A hail of crossbow bolts and magic missiles from the Blackshards and Sorceress spell doom for several of the Silver Helms. The Witches recieve flesh to stone from the level 3 Life mage to help them recieve the charge.

High Elf Turn 2

I Charge the Witches with both the Dragon Mage and the Frostheart Pheonix, whilst the Noble Slams into the side of the Coldone Knights, hoping to overrun into the side of the Witch Eves if the Knights break. The Silver Helms back up, hoping to avoid combat until the right flank is dealt with, and the archer blocks wheel so that thay can start shooting the Hydra and Crossbows. My shooting is really poor, and I fail to put any wounds on the Hydra, but crowstorm and the bolt throwers kill some Crossbowmen. A timely Wildform also buffs the lone Noble for his combat Vs. the Knights.

Combat is bloody, the Noble on eagle kills two knights on the charge, and they break, allowing him to overrun into the side of the Witch Elves. The combined mass of two monsters and the buffed Noble makes T6 nearly irrelevant, and the Witchelves Break. The noble restrains, the dragon persues into the Manticore and the Frostheart is left in front of both Hydra with two wounds taken from the poisoned attacks. (At this point, Martin allocated about 13 arttacks to the mage on dragon, i failed all of my 2+ Re-rollable armour saves, only to roll all the 6’s for my dragon Armour ward saves, so many 1’s were rolled, followed by a lot of 6’s.

Dark Elf Turn 2Tis was an odd turn, both hydra smashed into the side of the Frostheart, the cold ones moved forwards ready to chearge the archers and bolt throwers (the silver helms were out of LOS behind the tower) and the Pegasus mage flew behind the Silver helms in order to spell them to death, and the crossbow bunker moved up to shoot at the prince on his own.

In the Magic phase however, Martin IF’s Doombolt, killing 3 Silver Helms, and then rolls a double one, followed by a 2 for his miscast. This sends the Sorceress down the hole, resulting in bad times for the DE as I am able to stop the rest of his magic phase.

I felt A little mean for taking these two, but when casters dissapear down the hole, you kinda have to document it! XD

 

In CC, the dragon suffers a wound from the manticore, and the pheonix deals three wounds to one of the two hydra. 14 attacks from the two Hydra, and 14 breath weapon hits, resulted in 0 wounds to the (broken) Pheonix, and with BSB and generall within  12″, the copmbat goes nowhere. (The -1 Str and T6 of the Frostheart meant that although Martin was rolling 20+ dice to wound, the armour and ward save, combined with needing 6’s to wound, let the 240 point bird tank a flank charge from 360pts of monster without a wound)

High Elf turn 3

I charge the Prince into the front of one of the Hydra, and throw the Flamespyre into the Manticore hoping to kill it off before the Dragon dies, and the Mage gets stomped flat. My magic phase goes nowhere thanks to some canny dispels by Martin. the archers and Bolt throwers kill 4 of the 5 Knights, and then the Prince and the Frostheart break the Hydra, one being killerd before it can strike thanks to the Star lance and focussed attacks from the Frostheart. Bizzarely, after chasing down the Hydra, the Frostheart hits the bunker of Crossbows, dodging the standard stand and shoot reaction. The dragon/Pheonix/Wizard/ Manticore fight continues to drag on, with the Dragon losing another wound, and the combat being a draw!

Dark Elf Turn 3

In this, the final turn of the game (due to running out of time) not much happens, Martin’s Sorceress doesn’t do all too much in the Magic Phase, and due to the static Combat res, and wounds put out by the Dreadlord onto the Pheonix, the combat ends with a draw. (the Pheonix has one wound remaining) Also, the monster slap fight in the corner results in the Manticore suffering wounds, but not enough to kill it, having passed his Ld test, It goes nowhere.

Due to casualties recieved, martin gives the game to me, and i thank him for the game….

 

We then spent and hour or so in the bar downstairs, discussing builds for the DE, and different ways of playing them, as well as wondering what will happen to monsters in 9th edition…

 

I kinda look forwards to the combined profiles, as it makes Manticores and Griffons easier to put into lists, but the idea of a combined profile Anointed on Frostheart, or Chaos Dragonlord with a 3++ re-rolling 1’s is frankly terrifying! It’s probably going to make tghings that could be better better, but at the same time make things that are already good, BETTER!

 

I hope you liked the new format of my Battle Reports, It was fun to play with BattleChronicler and it will see more use from now on!

 

Next week: Relic Knights Battle Box games Vs. ZadraxDG (Darren) in my first proper game since it actually arrived! wooo Soda-pop anime goodness!

 

Oh, and I’ll be writing an unboxing and construction post of my new Iron Demon, for my Chaos Dwarf Army!