Friday Top Ten #3

It was pretty slim pickings this week, but i put that down to a lot of bloggers preparing for Adepticon. What i did find though was excellent stuff.

1. This Bonecrusher by Mike Howell is awesome. I really don't see enough of these about

2. Repentia are such nice models to paint, as BJ at Extremis Diabolus proves here. Shame about the rules though

3. This Witch Hunter, by Andy over at The Lair of the Breviks caught my eye

4. Inq28 has painted this. Not sure if it's a Rogue Trader, Inquistors henchman, or what, but it's seriously cool

5. An excellent Crimson Fist sergeant from Dakka Dakka Daz

6. Ottawa Gamer has a nice analysis of the new BA codex.

7. Col. Corbane posted a great tutorial for trees and foliage

8. These Drop Troopers by Side Streaker are amazing. I'll be watching this army with great interest

9. Atrotos from the Rules Manfactorum discusses the seemingly inevitable return of Herohammer

10. I've had my eye on these Slitherbugs by Rob Baer for a while now, but this Tyrant is particularly awesome

And finally...

Honorary Mention

Incunabulog has posted a review of the best model of all. This made me smile considering what the near future may hold for me

Just an announcement, there won't be Top Ten for the next two weeks, owing to the fact that i'll be at a music festival on Mersea Island on the Easter weekend and at my relatives the week after. Should be back in three weeks time though, so watch this space.

Friday Top Ten #2

A week rolls round quicker than i thought. Here's this weeks round-up

1. The Shadow Hive has a truely gribbly Great Unclean one that really makes me want to do a Nurgle army

2. Styus' Zoanthrope looks pretty awesome too

3. The heresy has never looked so good with this Warmaster Horus from Dave Taylor

4. More Nurgle Deamons, this time from Pink Tyranids

5. Pick A Damn Army, has been inspiring my Blood Pact for a while, but Rabidchild has painted a awesome looking Night Lord too

6. Seems to be the week for for chaos, as Ninjabread's been painting pre-heresy Thousand Sons

7. This Ork Warboss over at The Tin Paint Bucket caught my eye

8. And some amazing Necrons from Tower of Heroes

9. More orks from Dark Future games, this time a Battlefortress

10. Finally, Sons of Taurus has a new scenario that looks fun to try out

Stormraven Conversion WIP

The battle report from last weeks campaign game is still on the way but unfortunately it's very time consuming and time is something i really don't have enough of at the moment.

Instead, here's some WIP pics of my Stormraven Gunship i've been meaning to put up for a few weeks now. It's made simply through a rearrangement of parts from one of my Valkyries (it broke after taking a tumble from a high shelf, hence the reason why it seems already painted) and the addition of a little plasticard.

I'm aiming to give it interchangable weapon mounts, so it can be switched between a counts as Valkyrie and Stormraven at will (also the reason why it's crewed by a Scout, who can pass as a Imperial Guardsman too)

What do people think so far?

Friday Top Ten #1

Ryan from Ftw has said that he wouldn't mind having some rival top tens out in the Blogosphere, so i'm taking him up on that challenge

Hopefully this will become a hopefully weekly, or at least a fortnightly thing. I've wanted to do it for a while, but havn't wanted to tread on Ryans toes.

I'm not trying to compete with or supplant Ryans Tuesday Top Ten, i just want to provide an insight into what inspires me in the hobby world

So without further ado, here's this weeks list

1. Here are some rather nice scratch-built Meganobs by MTD

2. Templar Vanquish has made this Arbites patrol vehicle

3. Bell of Lost Souls has a good tutorial for painting bone, which i'll be using for my Deathwing

4. Bsmoove has done some interesting Terminators

5. Some very nice WIP Dwarfs from The Grumpy Stunty

6. FtW's Ron has written a good article on the power of suggestion

7. I'm not normally a fan of Rhino's, but this one caught my eye

8. Killa Kans are one of my favourite Ork vehicles and this one at Musings of a Smurf made me want to paint some more

9. Some sweet Deathwatch from Jeremy

10. and finally, i love these airships from Musings of a Metal Mind

On the Eve of War

"Tomorrow the war for Stygias begins in earnest. The foes arrayed against us are many and we are few. I will not deny that the going will be tough and i don't expect many of you to survive. However, those who make it through the tempest will be deemed most worthy in the eyes of the Primordial Annihilator and borne to greatness above all others

Now let us rise and defeat these heathen Astartes who seek to defile the promised land of the the Khorne!

Blood for the Blood God!"

Vash Etogaur at the onset of the Stygias Campaign

Tomorrow sees the first battle of the latest campaign at my local gaming club. It's been pushed back a week due to stuff going on in my life, but in all honesty, the extra week of thinking has done me good and i'm a lot more optimistic about my battle plan than i was before

I'm up against Vanilla Marines in the first round, defending in a Planetfall mission with my Blood Pact, a role which i'm none too happy about, what with my usual force being geared for attack, so i've had to devise some unorthodox tactics, which i will divulge fully tomorrow after the battle, as my opponent reads this blog, so i don't want him learning of my plans quite yet. I'll explain all later when i put up the battle report. I'll say now though that he won't know what hit him!

Instead, i'll outline the fluff i've been developing for my army. I've come up with this to mainly explain why he's fighting all sorts of races, instead of just Guard and Space Marines (the imperial forces in the sabbat worlds) and also how he came to be on Stygia in the first place (which is according to the campaign fluff, near the Ghoul Stars)

Vash Etogaur is a highly respected commander within the Blood Pact, his name associated with the most high risk and dangerous missions, where chances of survival were minimal. Yet the Etogaur has a knack of emerging miraculously unscathed, causing many within the ranks of the Pact to believe he is marked for greatness by the blood god himself

As a Damogaur on Morlond he led in insertion team that led to the destruction of high marshal Iago’s command leviathan. His crack Death Brigade lay low in the engine rooms for three days before striking with a graviton bomb. The resulting concussion wave ripped the heart out of the imperial eastern flank, which chaos forces surged forward to fill . It took 5 days for Crusade forces to re- plug the gap, during which time the Blood Pact reaped a mighty toll on the imperials, offering many thousands of skulls up to Khorne. This victory saw Vash rise to the rank of Etogaur and an entire philia put under his command.

High command seemed to suit Vash, combining cunning with sheer audacity. Even as the Archenemy withdrew from Morland, he commanded a masterful rearguard, coordinating a series of devastating strikes on the victorious imperials, ensuring even in defeat the Blood God would take his toll.

With the favours piled upon him, his career was set to be monumental, with him tipped to become the Anarch's second-in-command after Vayrys was slain on Tarnagua. However, Khorne had different ideas.

Imperial histories record how that ancient edifice of Sparshad Mons was obliterated from orbit after imperial guard scouts discovered a series of warp gates running beneath its surface, through which the Blood Pact were ferrying forces from off-world.

Vash was on the threshhold of one of these gates when the first lance strike hit the gate, severing its connection to the aether in a heartbeat and causing violent feedback through the network, killing thousands of chaos warriors instantly. Vash lost his left arm and suffered burns to most of his body, but he survived. Just.

As he lay in the medicae bay of the 'Hand of Rage', lost in a fever-induced trance, it is said that the Primordial Annihilator himself spoke to him, granting Vash visions of hidden sources of power throughout the galaxy, just waiting to be claimed by those with the strength of will to do so.

It was a sign of Vash's true devotion to his lord and master that when he awoke, he shared these visions of greatness with the Gaur, instead of coverting the power for himself.

The Anarch commanded Vash to take a fleet and travel the galaxy, gathering to him these relics and technological horrors, so they might help bring about greater destruction in Khornes name. Many are the atrocities that Vash has conducted in pursuit of this mission, including the raiding of the inquisitional fortress of Halvas and the scouring of the shrine world of Minan II. Each victory bring many new converts to his cause and when he finally returns to the Sabbat Worlds, along with hellish devices of destruction, he will also bring with him thousands of fresh recruits to be inducted into the pact and ritually scarred upon the ancient power armour of Urlock Gaur.

His most recent mission sees him heading for the far flung world of Stygias, seeking the device known as the Amarth-Thame, or ‘Apocalypse Box’. Sealed beneath the surface, these devices pre-date mankinds ascent into the star and represent power the likes of which most mortals can only dream of. With that at their disposal, the Archenemy could easily seize victory in the Sabbat World Crusade, where they are being ground down by Warmaster Macaroths crusade. However, many other races are drawn to the devices psychic beacon. War on a scale rarely seen before has erupted on Stygias and only time will tell if Vash and his forces will emerge victorious...

The Blood Pact ready for battle in the name of the Anarch



Vash and his command staff

GW has interesting scenarios again!

GW have just put this up on their site

here it is

it's a new battle mission, apparently the first of many new ones they'll be putting up.

The main thing i find interesting that it's reactive warfare, rather than the 'i go, you go' system. The Attackers and Defenders shooting phases are switched round, making for a nicely flowing battle.

I'd like to see this as the start of a rebirth for GW. I've really missed their scenario archive ever since it was taken down from their site nearly 3 years ago and if they keep putting great stuff like this up, i'd be a very happy chappy

I can't wait to test this out down my local club, if i can find anyone willing to play it with me

Soul Drinkers returning

Looking at the latest batch of BA rumours,it's sounding more and more like my quest for the perfect codex for fielding my Soul Drinkers with is finally at an end.

I'm aware,this is all working from rumours, so it could be completely different when the book's actually out, but this is what i'm thinking, working from the most recent stuff i've heard

5 Reasons why i'm liking the New BA codex

- Sarpedon

Whether i use Mephiston or a generic Librarian, i feel that Sarpedon will live up to how i imagine him under the BA codex. Blood Stasis looks alot like I imagine The Hell to be, slowing down the enemy and making them hurt themselves in their fear.

Also, using Quickening makes him a Beast! (literally, not the metaphorical combat kind)

One thing's for sure though. I won't miss Sarpedon dying every single game!

-Stormraven Gunship.

A flyer without a model - a converters dream! The Soul Drinkers often used captured fliers in the books, even some of Xenos origin and this is seems the perfect way to bring that element into my Soul Drinkers army

- Chapter Master Seth

aka. Tellos . Current rumours point to him having a Canis Wolfborn-like ability to boost his attacks when there's more models in contact with him, plus additonal hits if the enemy miss him as he takes advantage of their mistake. Perfect for the down and dirty fighting style of Tellos.

Plus, i don't have to put Tellos on a Canis-sized base to field him, woop!

- Chaplain Lemartes

aka. Chaplain Iktinos. The move to from HQ to squad upgrade character makes me very happy, as the mysterious Chaplain can now be fielded alongside Sarpedon and Tellos - together these three characters define the Chapter.
Using up to 4 characters was the main motivation behind me trying to make the force work with the SW codex in the first place. I'll most likely lose Luko with the switch to BA, but it's a price i'm willing to pay if the main three are still there.

Plus, him being a Death Company Squad leader means i can use the DC to represent his 'Flock'

- Troops Choice Assault Marines

These give me a little flexibility in the kind of Soul Drinkers force I can take, theming it towards different Soul Drinkers 'factions'.

I can put Tactical Squads in there to represent the bulk of the chapter, or i can go all-Assault Marines, led by Tellos/Seth to represent Tellos' followers who were left behind on Stratix Luminae (an awesome idea in my opinion!)

what do people think?

Manticore has a bath

I've attacked my Manticore with several liberal washes with Badab Black and Devlan Mud, as well as filling in many of the fine details, such as the silver metalwork and the rivets. It's getting there. Admittedly, it's slow progress, but i'm proud of what little i'm getting done.

The Storm Eagle Rockets are still on the painting table and I found the last Rocket down the back of my desk last night, although it's too late now to get it primed, painted and done by thursday, so it'll have to wait for now and go with the three-rocket idea.

I've pretty much got everything i need for this campaign at least partially painted now. It's just a matter of knuckling down and getting them done when i get a chance. Easier said than done though, what with exam season approaching fast and two Final Major Projects to do, as well as a missus to keep happy, but i'll get there eventually.