I actually got to play a game?

After a month or two of not being able to get any games in, I was finally able to make it down to our PBL a few weeks ago. I got in an 800 point game with my Shadow Crows, which marks the first "real" sized game I've managed to play with them. The pictures are pretty blurry thanks to my poor phone camera, but they are better than nothing for a battle report.

The mission was standard deployment, with 3 objectives in a triangle and two troops choice counting as killpoints. I took
Librarian with JP, blood lance, shield
2x 10man Assault squads, JP, 2 meltguns, Serg with powerfist, one of them combat squadded (the one with the sergeant and the other full squad were my two troop killpoints).
1x Honor Guard, JP, 2 with single Lightning Claw, 2 with meltabombs

I came up against Scott's Ultramarines fielding
1 Terminator Librarian with Smite, something else
Sicarius
2x 10 man Tactical squads with Flamers, 1 w/ missile launcher, 1 w/ heavy bolter
Dreadnought with assault cannon and missile




I gave the first deployment to Scott, who deployed with the dread in the middle flanked by the tac squads. I Reserved everything, and he took his free 2 turns to move up onto the closest two objectives. At the bottom of turn 2 all of my units managed to come in thanks to Descent of Angels. I landed my main force in the middle behind the poor dreadnought with meltaguns primed. The honor guard dropped in closer to Scott's table edge, as I wanted to do my best to keep the main squad in their FNP bubble, without endangering the HG to much fire. the two squads dropped in to put pressure on sicarius' squad, and ran to get in cover for next turn. I ended the turn with another good roll when the librarian's squad managed to explode the dreadnought with melta.

Scott responded with firing on my librarian squad with his librarian tac squad, killing about 3-4. The Sicarius tac squad manoeuvred and rapid fired at the 5man team with the powerfist. A lucky shot killed the sergeant, and another marine ate a plasma pistol shot.





Rather than split my forces, I decided to overwhelm Sicarius, judging that I could most likely hit the other tac squad quickly enough afterwards, or control most of the objectives if need be. My four squads converged on Sicarius, sending a lethal hail of fire and reducing their number by a few marines.





This ended up leaving the librarian squad out of charge range, but the other three pressed on. The end result would see Sicarius standing alone surrounded by enemies.





Scott opened fire on the librarian squad again, though I don't believe it caused any casualties, and the combat was resolved. Sicarius made a valiant effort to buy more time for his comrades, and very nearly remained standing. But in the end, he lost his last wound to the last of the armor saves and fell.





My squads formed up with some generous consolidation moves, forming a forward line of assault squads, with the honor guard behind and the depleted combat squad hugging cover on an objective as insurance.





My attack force swept forward, with the two assault squads managing their assault through cover distances, and the honor guard keeping the bubble up in the shooting phase. The Ultramarines lose quite a few, and failed their morale check. Instead of getting cut down by a sweeping advance, they reformed and turned fearless for the next round.





The assault during Scott's half of turn 5 whittled down the remaining Ultramarine Tactical squad members, leaving the Terminator Librarian locked in combat. On my turn the Honor Guard boosted over the melee and charged into the lone Librarian, felling him with lightning claws.

______________________________________________

Overall it was a good game that gave us both some more experience with deepstriking and assault. My deployment worked flawlessly, and I had some lucky rolls early on that I can not always count on happening. Even with just 1D6 scatter, I've learned to respect my drop zone choices. Also, I need that FNP and furious charge on my side. Even fighting Tac squads, I felt my Assault Marines whiffing after the initial charges.

Furthermore, by going second and reserving all, I was able to capitalize on Scott's deployment choices. Had he deployed more defensively, it would probably have been a much closer game. Being able to get behind the dreadnought and split his forces in two was much easier than dropping out of melta range and dealing with the two units close enough to support each other. I have the feeling I won't get the same drop on him next time, however. :]

The decision to go with Honor Guard was a last minute one, but I think they did the job perfectly at this point level. They kept my priest safe in combat, and still provided a bit of punch that I would have looked for with my Vanguard veterans, at half the price. The lack of the VV heroic intervention is something I can do without at such a low point level. I will definitely consider them in larger lists as well, sacrificing some bling on my VV. Their equipment options really open things up, either turning them into tank hunter and FNP support, or going for close combat punch.

My Power Weapons: step by step

I had these photos from the day I did the jump pack tutorial, so I figured I would turn it into a quick step by step of what I do for my power weapons. Click the picture for a larger view.

1. Black base coat weapon. I prefer to finish everything else, and leave the power effect for last.
   
   
2. P3 Khador Red thinned down and applied by painting little droplets, think like a slow tattoo gun motion. This means you need to keep the paint watered down and not very much on your brush. I try to make larger black sections by the base and back of the blade, and get smaller as I get closer to the business end.
   
   
3. 50/50 mix of P3 Red and Vallejo Sun Yellow. Same approach as step 2, but trying to get a thinner line.
   
   
4. Repeated again with straight yellow. I went a little heavy handed on the left, and it will show by the end.
   
   
5. Touch up the lave flakes with black, thin the lines down to make them look more like cracks. You can see again the right is looking better than the left.
   
   
6. Apply a layer of P3 Red Ink to the blade side, and quickly remove it from the tip and along the front of the blade (I use my thumb to completely remove it from the very edges, and then slightly from the nearby area) to make a quick gradient. If you want more red intensity you can repeat this step a few times, applying to less and less of the blade towards the base. You may want to go back with a black wash to darken the black parts if you do this.
   
   
7. When everything is dried, reapply some yellow in spots where multiple lines meet, and try to trace it down the length of the sword towards the little power node thing. Take some white and hit a few of the line intersections sparingly.
   
   
8. Apply a leviathan purple to the bottom half of the blade, and wipe away the top part again for a darkened gradient at the hilt. Repeat as necessary. You can see it hadn't quite dried when I took the pictures, but the end result is a dulling down.

There you have it, pretty straight forward. Its not better than layering 20 times, but it is certainly faster. If you don't like the gradient, you can just leave it at step 5.

From these last two tutorials, I have grown into a technique of inks and washes for lighting effects that has worked fairly well for my tastes. Inks intensify and saturate, and washes to dull and shade. I have some more inks on the way, so expect a few variants on this method for my lighting effects in future projects.

Jump Pack Thrusters - Light em up!

No longer must your jump packs be extinguished! light em up! Here is a step by step of how I make mine (shamelessly copy&pasted from my BnC post..)

I use P3 red ink, and Vallejo sun yellow and white.

I start with basic black primed or dark dry-brushed jump pack thrusters. I work on them in sets so I can maximize painting while others dry.



I start with a big blob of white in the two source parts of each thruster. I often have a huge crack there, so I will add thick white layers over the course of painting to fill it up. These will be my light source. I then take thinned whites and edge all the hard corners and lines that would face these white light sources. This needs a brush with a well kept point, but uses the paint on the edge of the brush. If you are not used to this method, take some scrap minis to try it on. Having the right amount of thinned paint on the brush will help immensely, so I usually wipe the first stroke on my thumbnail (subsequently I often end a paint session with a Jackson Pollock on my thumb)



Next I do the same thing with a thinned Sunburst Yellow, leaving white at the source dots. Well thinned paint helps again. Too watery and it will run into crevices, and too dry and you will be dry-brushing a yellow that isn't as striking.



I cover everything in a thin layer of red ink, leave the white sources if you can, otherwise touch it up at the end. This gives everything a good heated area look.



I go back over some of the edges with yellow again.



I decided the red wasn't heavy enough, so I apply another red ink layer to certain spots away from the edges and touch up the white sources.



There you go! This is a good way to get used to simple source lighting. You can see that my powerfist/thunderhammers follow a similar lighting feel. My other power weapons follow a slightly different style, relying more on lava texture and gradient.

______________________________________________

Vanguard at the Ready!

Vanguard Veterans and Priest are nearing completion. Still missing jumppacks and some detailing before they are complete, but soon! I hope to finish this stuff this weekend, as I have a secret project that has crept up on me...

I will do what I can to shield you from the unknowable horror with which it holds, but I fear I will ultimately fail in such a task..

______________________________________________

Big Trouble in Little Malifaux

As I work to finish phase one of my Shadow Crows, I'm planning for what needs to be done on my other projects coming down the pipe. In the meantime I've got some smaller projects that have seen some good progress.

______________________________________________

Viktoria Crew Detailing

I really haven't had a good chance to finish learning Malifaux, but that doesn't mean I can't fix up some of my models! I put work into the Viktoria's shading the cloak, adding some decorative lotus petals to the scabbards, etc.




One of my favorites is my Ronin who got herself a Big Trouble in Little China shirt! I would like to add a bit more freehand to some of the other characters sometime soon.

______________________________________________

Burna Boyz

I actually painted these burna boyz a long time ago, but completely missed taking a picture of them. I really liked how they turned out, but I could still use some better shots with proper lighting one of these days. I took this after turning them to green paste with my assault marines (who were in turn, rendered into grey paste :]) Also here is a shot of the infamous Shady Warboss from an angle to show what is going on behind him on the base. His palanquin has been replaced as well, it breaks a lot.

"Our blast templates shall blot out the sun"
"Then wez waagh in da shade!"

______________________________________________

Vanguard Veterans WIP

The Vanguard Veterans have also seen some love. I'm working on getting the Jumppacks ready, but managed to get the last of the beakie heads on and start up some basecoats. I'm slowly finding my way through what variants on my colorscheme to use for the VV and the HQ's. More to come on these guys over the week.

______________________________________________

Descent of Crows - 1000pt Army

My current force of Shadow Crows are getting closer to completion! With the assault squads completed, I only have the Vanguard Veterans, Priest, and Librarian to get through. While I was originally keeping pace with a 200pt per month escalation, I have been inspired to complete them at a faster rate. With an elite force, this is not so difficult. I figured I would begin thinking through variants on my initial 1k list.

I have only managed a few kill team games and one 500 pt 2v2 match with them, and I am still learning the little nuances about assault that I could normally ignore with my Tau. My army is expending a lot of points for reliable deepstriking and fast movement. I am learning that I need to make use of this to the upmost of my ability if I want to make sure those points are not wasted.



With that said, here is what I have been building my models towards:

______________________________________________

Librarian x1 - Jump Pack, Shield and Bloodlance powers

Sanguinary Priest x1 - Jump Pack, Power Sword

Vanguard Veterans x6 - Jump Packs, and a few melta bombs
- Sergeant with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
- Storm Shield Bolt Pistol
- Lightning Claw Bolt Pistol
- Lightning Claw Storm Shield
- Bolt Pistol Chainsword
- Bolt Pistol Chainsword

Assault Squad x10 - Jump Packs, Sergeant with Pow Fist, 2x Meltaguns

Assault Squad x10 - Jump Packs, Sergeant with Pow Fist, 2x Meltaguns

1000pts, 28 models, 5-7 Killpoints

______________________________________________

This leaves me with a pretty small force for 1k points, but also a good amount of flexibility with starting on the board vs a reliable deepstrike, and combat squadding for spreading melta hits if needed. One of the decisions to field a risky force like this is to aim for faster games, one way or the other :).

The lynchpin of the force is the vanguard veterans. If they mishap I am in serious trouble, and if they scatter out of charge range I am still in a tough spot. The storm shields can help them possibly weather a bad turn of shooting, but primarily to help them take on things that would normally rip through my regular squads. The problem is that it bumps up the price of the squad quite a bit.

I have to decide, at 1k points is deepstriking worth it? Lets look at a list without the vets that is more about jumping across the board to do their dirty work.

______________________________________________

Librarian x1

Sang Priests x2, chainswords

Assault Squad x10, Pow Fist, 2 meltaguns

Assault Squad x10, Pow Fist, 2 meltaguns

Assault Squad x10, Hammer, 2 meltaguns

~15pts leftover, apply meltabombs or a lightning claw on priest
1000pts, 33 models, 6-9 Killpoints

______________________________________________

This would be using my VV as normal marines, and opening up my other box of assault marines to make up the rest of that squad. This list focuses on weight of numbers in a deployed force. I could combat squad into 6 units to cover late-game objectives or hit more units with melta/assaults. I can stay full squads for killpoint efficiency and utilize the librarian squad to gain cover during the approach. But I am forgoeing deepstrike for the most part. I could always drop combat squadded melta-sacrifice units if really needed, but I cant expect to get a charge off without the van vets. I am gaining a second priest bubble which can be game-changing, but also sacrificing power weapons. If I can manage a claw on both ws5 priests it might even out, but on the other hand I do not want to draw more threat to them then they already have.

What do you all think? Keep it simple and efficient at such low points, or go for the gusto with expensive veteran badasses? Work the Librarian dread in?

The Shadow Crows

We are scattered, we are lost, but we are not yet dead. We become Crows now, until the 10th flies high once more." - Commander Korvydae, Shadowcaptain of Raven Guard 10th Company, “The Shadow Crows”

Here is a look at the beginnings of my newest 40k addition. Rather then rewrite the whole thing, here is a mostly copypasted post from the ATT forum..

Thoughts Behind the Army:
When I began to plan for this army I decided that I wanted a few specific things.
Jump Packs, Lightning Claws, and Beakies. Raven Guard became an obvious choice, and I did enjoy what little fluff they have.

While Shrike or Korvydae's Forgeworld rules would work OK for a jump pack list, I feel the Blood Angels DOA rules really make it much more viable, but I really did not want another red army. Korvydae's rules mimic Dante (although he is very much Dante's junior), so I chose to establish him at a time where he has grown considerably in power, and perhaps at the head of a more gritted force. My Korvydante army was born.

I was rather disappointed with the showing for Raven Guard in the Imperial Armor book. I've modeled this force off of an interpretation of Korvydae further on in his life. His company have been torn asunder, and he has gone a bit crazy trying to replenish these losses. I'm not entirely sure if he has been ousted from the RG, possibly to atone by overseeing a newly founded chapter at this point. Their equipment colors have been stripped down to base materials either in penance or because they have been cast off. It is possible that they have uncovered long lost equipment belonging to the original legion, maybe even some of Corax' experiment chambers. It can be a rather tired idea in some space marine stories, but one that could explain the method of advancing newer recruits into marines in such a small force, and gene-instability mimicking the red thirst.

I will be trying to avoid overly Blood Angel units like Sanguinary Guard and Death Company for now, though I do plan to have some things that stretch RG fluff. Sanguinary priests will be lore keepers with relics or banners reclaimed from the dropsite massacre, my librarian Furioso was made mostly just for the sake of modelling him, etc..

Current Showing:
The army is forming in tune to a monthly escalation league. My killteam 200pt force performed very well, although I have chosen to give the scouts the boot for the next round. In their place, a librarian dread and a fully fleshed out assault squad to bring it to 400.


I have since modelled a second assault squad and 6man VanVet group, as well as a priest and librarian. I particularly like my repurposed Ezekiel shown here. I stripped my 10year old paint job, and hacked up his feet quite a bit, but I think it was for the better. Pictures of the assault squad and VanVets will follow next week. At present force I have 1250pts, though that is including the scouts which dilutes the jumppack idea a bit. I plan to play this army for awhile and determine if I want to go up to a 2k force. I most likely would add another assault squad, another priest, and an honor guard with Korvydante.

______________________________________________