So I've managed to get time in for a few games tomorrow with Brad from the Sons of Sanguinius blog. I have a couple of lists in mind to try. One is my assault Terminator heavy list and the other is a missile spam list.

The assault list needs me to be very aggressive and I struggle with this, I tend to loose focus and sometimes and up going backwards with the unit letting my opponent decide how the game is played.

The second list is a missile spam list, 3 x 5 termies with double cyclones and 3 x 2 Typhoons, it kicks out loads of missiles 12 of them tank hunting but it feels very gun line.

Both lists have 3 x 5 man crusader squads in them, I know popular opinion is that I should run bigger squads but to be honest I just cant justify spending the points on probably the most disappointing unit in the codex, I only have the minimum because I have to.

The lists win by stopping my denying my opponent the ability to score. I either shove a great big assault squad down their throat of blow them off the board with massed missile fire.

I am going to try a Chaplain with servitors, fearless and making me auto pass moral checks means the assault terminators automatically pass any zeal checks they need to make meaning the potential to roll on D6+3 after a casualty makes them an even bigger threat.

Ill let post tomorrow letting you know know the lists got on and what I've decided on.

Some piccies!!

As promised I thought I would through some more (better?) pictures up of the units I have painted for my Templar Army so far. I have had some very kind comments from those that have seen them in the "flesh".

I painted the champion white so contrast him against the rest of the black army, it makes him stand out nicely as he is such a nice figure.







As always, apologies as these were taken on my I-Phone.

Caladonian...The Final cut

So, the list has to be submitted by the 22nd of December and after chewing the cud over with Brad and reading comments from Atradies, Venerable Brother and Killswitch Ive decided to go with the list bellow which I will be sending off tomorrow night unless I once again enter indecisive mode.


HQ: Marshal, Lightning Claw, Storm Shield, Terminator Armour, Adamantine Mantle.

HQ: Emperor's Champion, Accept Any Challenge.

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad.
3 Terminator
1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher
1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chain fist.
Tank Hunter

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Assault Squad
2 Terminator with Lightning Claws
4 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
Furious Charge
1 Land Raider Crusader, Dozer Blade, Smoke Launchers, Blessed Hull.

Troops: Crusader Squad
8 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW.
1 Initiate with Meltagun.
1 Initiate with Bolt Pistol & Power Weapon, Power Weapon.
1 Drop Pod.

Troops: Crusader Squad
5 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW.
1 Neophyte with Bolt Pistol & CCW.
1 Neophyte with Shotgun.

Troops: Crusader Squad
5 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW.
1 Neophyte with Bolt Pistol & CCW.
1 Neophyte with Shotgun.

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron
1 Land Speeder Typhoon.
1 Land Speeder Typhoon.

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron
1 Land Speeder Typhoon.
1 Land Speeder Typhoon.

The main changes I've made are; Claw on the Marshal and some Neophytes to appease Venerable Brother.

The Drop Pod squad means that I can dump a nice fat squad more or less anywhere I want to contest objectives, support the assault terminators or generally make a nuisance of themselves.

Its nice and flexible and gives me some nice options and the Drop Squad means I can react to threats and the fact it drops in means my opponent will have to think about thier more static units deployment.

Comments anyone?

Caladonian alternative list

So I've been having some thoughts about my caladonian list and I have been thinking about some alternatives and this is what I've come up with so far.


HQ: Marshal
Chain Fist, Storm Shield,,Terminator Armour, Adamantine Mantle

HQ: Emperor's Champion, Accept Any Challenge...

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad
3 Terminators
2 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher
Tank Hunters

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad
3 Terminators
2 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher
Tank Hunters

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Assault Squad
2 Terminator with Lightning Claws
4 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
Furious Charge
1 Land Raider Crusader, Dozer Blade, Smoke Launchers, Blessed Hull

Troops: Crusader Squad
3 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW
1 Initiate with Plasmagun
1 Initiate with Lascannon

Troops: Crusader Squad
3 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW
1 Initiate with Plasmagun
1 Initiate with Lascannon

Troops: Crusader Squad
3 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW
1 Initiate with Plasmagun
1 Initiate with Lascannon

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron
1 Land Speeder Typhoon

Im a bit stuck.

That lot comes out at 1809 points and I have no idea where I might spend the remaining 41.

My problem with this list is that it doesn't have a massive assault presence, I doesnt present a huge ranged threat, I think it might be a balanced list!!!

Any help would be appreciated.

Work in progress

Its been a while since I posted anything I'm working on so here we go.

I've got 4 Typhoons to build and paint, I have 3 so I need to pick up another one (I may try to get one for Crimbo from the missis)

The first one is about half way there, the pilot is done, all the flashing lights in the cockpit are jewelled. Need to finish the missiles and gunner, then some scripting on the bodywork then on to number 2.

Once again the pics are taken with my IPhone so they aint great quality so apologies.

Caladonian foot slogging

So onto my next tournamanet is Caladonian uprising, I will be continuing with the foot slogging theme, its fluffy and frankly hard as fuck. If I play it well it should return the favour and do well. It ticks all the boxes, good ranged fire in the form of 8 S8+1 Missiles and 20 S4+1 Stormbolters from the Tankhunting Cyclone Terminators, 8 S8 missiles and 12 S5 HeavyBolter shots from the Typhoons and a Hammer unit (Litteraly hammers) made entirley of doom. The list will suffer from the failings of all foot armies, opponents that can move fast but I think I can cope with them, I'll be fun finding out.

Caladonian Uprising 1850 points

Its dirty but easy to deal with if my opponent doesnt open his bowels at the sight on 10 Tank Hunting Thunderhammer Terminators with all the bells and whistles strapped on sprinting upto his lines. 30 thunder Hammer attacks on I1, 5 Chainfist attacks on I1, 4 attacks from the Chump on I5? Yes please, I cant think of any unit in the game that can take that and remain in tact.

So below is list 1 - I ran it against Eldar last night and It did rather well. I got a draw on objective and won on killpoints.

1850 Pts - Black Templars Roster

Total Roster Cost: 1850

HQ:

1 Marshal, , Chain Fist, Storm Shield, Terminator Armor Adamantine Mantle.

1 Emperor's Champion, Accept Any Challenge

Elite:

10 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield, Crusader Seals,

Tank Hunters

3 Terminator

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Cyclone Missile Launcher.

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chainfist.

Tank Hunters

3 Terminator

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Cyclone Missile Launcher.

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chainfist.

Tank Hunters

Troop:

5 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

5 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

5 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

Fast Attack:

1 Land Speeder Typhoon

1 Land Speeder Typhoon

1 Land Speeder Typhoon

1 Land Speeder Typhoon

Let me know what you think. I know its going to suffer against some armies, Dark Eldar is going to be a BAAAAAAD matchup but I'm in for the

game as much as the win. I have no idea how it will fare against necrons.

Any thoughts?

Year End?

Next stop - Caladonian Uprising

So after some small success at Blog Wars 2 the next event I'm attending is Caladonian Uprising which will be the

beginning of my second tournament season.

So how did I do year 1?

Vapnartak - Middle of the field with Imperial Guard.

Openwar - Middle of the field with Imperial Guard.

Onslaught - Middle of the field with Black Templars and Best painted army (players Choice).

Blog War 2 - Top quarter with Black Templars and Best painted Special Character.

Thats really not bad at all, far better than I expected if im honest. My soft scores are good but my playing could be rather allot better. Now I'm not kidding myself, I'm not a bad player but I'm no ETC winner either. I play for fun more thank anything else and I happy with midfield and I think the painting score mean more to me than the tournament placings. That is not to say that I wont be playing harder and trying to place better and I think I have the codex that is capable of doing it.

How do I intent to do this?

I need to play slower; I suffer from giddy idiot syndrome. If i see a jucy target I tend to go for it, I forget to run units, I get ahead of myself and sometimes miss the obvious that then go on to cost me opportunities, points and victories.

Know the rules; I still dont know the deployment types by heart and feel like a bit of a doughnut reading the rule book so I don't look like an idiot, and some of the missions are a mystery to me. Not knowing what I can and cannot do has again and again cost me dear,

many times, at Blogwars it may have cost me 2nd or 3rd place or even a crack at 1st (maybe not).

Think more about what I'm doing and how I want to acheave it; On several occasions this year even playing friendlys I have dithered with units that really needed to be doing something. Particularly with the big Assault Terminator unit I've had them lounging about in midfield and they have ended up doing nothing, I don't deploy as well as I could, I deploy units I should reserve, I'm more concerned with getting the shot instead of conserving my units, I just cannot be trusted to run a Land raider with all those guns itching to be fired.

Next year I hope to do better, I'm booked into Caladonian Uprising at 1850 points and Vapnartak at 1000 points and I want to get a 3rd one in by the end of march if I can but we shall see!!

Next year I intend to try to run the footsloggers throughout next year and I'll keep tweeking the list as I go. Im taking a list Bradimus Prime has dubbed "The Thunder Bummer" to Caladonian and a variation of that to Vapnartak, I have discussed the list with a few of the tournament regulars and they have all reacted in the same way, fear!!!

I also intend to get some better photos up of my Templars and start putting them up so you can see the progress I've made. I still have a couple thousand points of Templar to paint so I want to get cracking through them and if the rumour mill is to be believed Templar's will get a new codex in 2012 so it may throw up some more army list possibilities...we shall see.

Blog Wars 2 - the aftermath!!

So Im back from Blog Wars 2 run by Alex at From the Fang and I have to say what a good event, Well run, great players and a good, fun event.

There was a great mix of tournament regulars, bloggers and the guys from 40kUK were there too. This tournament is on my list to head to whenever it comes up.

I played 3 games each of 2 hours 30 min each with primary and secondary objectives which I will list as i go through the missions and how I did.

I had intended to take photos of all the turns for each game but I kept forgetting...what a numpty.

Game 1 V`s Graham Sanders Tyranids from Rogue Trader Blog

The mission was kill points with the special character worth 2 and Dawn of war.

I was not happy about facing doom with a full foot slogging list, in fact I felt my bum hole tighten at the prospect.

I was however not a problem, at the end of tun 2 the Assault Brethren had killed 2 Spores, a Carnefex and 2 Zonthropes and the rest of the army accounted for another Spore, Doom and put some wounds on the remaining Fex and I had not taken any significant casualties.

By the bottom of turn 4 he had lost his Tyrant, the remaining Fex the last of the Thropes and all the remaining spores. The Assault Brethren were eating his army and the Tervigons were pumping out kill points.

By the time the game ended I had 1800+ VP and 16 kill points and not lost a single unit. The assault Brethren had scored 9 of those kill points by themselves, they gave me the massive win. Helbrecht performed well against the trash but did bugger all against the bigger, more important stuff. at 1 point he kicked out his full 8 attacks on the charge but that was his highlight.

That win shoved me straight up to table 2 playing Gary "the voice" Percival from the 40kUK podcast and his Deathwing army.

Turns 1-4 saw all my Crusaders killed by a mad amount of Krak missiles and he lost a few terminators to massed fire and exploding speeders.

Turn 5 after some manoeuvring I managed to get into assault range of his command squad and needed a 6 on a charge through difficult terrain which I got and then over the next 2 turns the Assault Brethren wiped them out and he fed them 2 more 5 man assault units which the obligingly ate and when the game ended turn 6 he had 3 table quarters to my 1 giving him 3-0 on Primary objectives but I had scored 3 points on secondary objective through victory points making it 0-3 to me. So after checking with Alex we had a draw.

This game went to a draw but only because Gary made a game of it, he could have won this one by reversing his army pouring fire into my assault unit, I may never have caught him as I spent a turn dithering with them midfield.

Game 3 saw me playing against Dave Symcox, the host of 40kUK who quite frankly outplayed me, 3 turns of firing from 4 grey hunter packs and long fangs and some other stuff left me with bugger all left. I got ground out, the game may have gone differently if I hadn't made a mistake with failed charge but I got comprehensively spanked.

That game cost me 2nd or 3rd place.

I did however play pretty well, my list (excluding Helbrecht) was awesome, the Assault Terminators are epic. I have read stuff on this website and I disagree that gun lines are the way forward for Templar's, If you want a gun line play guard or car parking Grey Knights.

Templar's are about shoving a spiky unit down you opponents throat!!

So I think I placed 4th but it wasn't so clear on the evening so I shall edit this post once Alex publishes is on From the Fang.

I did after all my complaining about him win best painted Special Character in the evening for Helbrecht so I went away very pleased with my performance playing and my painting.

I would like to thank Alex for a great event, one which I shall be making every effort to attend when ever he runs one. and I encourage anyone that reads this to take part too.

Its a great opportunity to meet other bloggers and bullshit with them.

Von Muller out....

Helbrecht

So, for Blog Wars 2 I needed to paint 3 Terminators, 1 Cyclone Terminator and Helbrecht, I finished the job last night at about midnight.

The terminators came out as expected and fit very nicely with their brethren but I just couldn't get Helbrecht right. I don't know what it is with this figure, it's a cracking mini with loads of detail and a sculpt which radiates menace but I just couldn't get a paint job I was happy with.

Characters are supposed to be just that, characterful, loads of detail and plenty of time spent on them, he had about 10 hours of my time. I'm just disappointed with the way he turned out. He fits in nicely with the rest of the army and will most certainly stand out but I think he might have to get a dipping and repainted in the same style as my Champion, but another day.

Helbrecht

So I thought I would do a review of Helbrecht, see what my expectations of him are and then after Blog Wars tomorrow I post how he actually did.

His stat line is more or less the same as a Marine Captain with the exception of 4 wounds and attacks rather than 3 so a little underwhelming for this Templar badass so far. He does however give me Rites of Battle which means all my units may use his leadership whilst he is alive, combined with my normal Marshal (who I'm beginning to this is better) means I can loose one of them without dropping to 8 leadership (important when your army is subject to the target priority rule).

He does come tooled up with all the bells and whistles including a combi-melta which is nice as I have zero in my list without him meaning that I may well get to pop a Land Raider if I come up against one. He also has Bionics, Articifer Armour, Crusader seals, frag and krak and the sword of the High Marshall's which is a Master Crafted power weapon that gives him +D3 attacks in the first round of assault.

The sword I not going to make a whole heap of difference when I think about it, Ok, 8 attacks on the charge is awesome but its only at S4 and with Accept any challenge I think the average kills is only 3 or 4 against marine equivalents. He will however be locked up in a nice big bubble wrap blanket of assault Terminators, my Terminator Marshal and the Champion, so I how he is going to be fairly hard to kill.

I think where this guy comes into his own is if I were to run a "Black Tide" style list, he can take a non Terminator Command Squad with an additional 5 Neophytes one of whom can be a company or fighting company standard bearer. Its possible (at great cost) to run a massive 19 man command squad with feel no pain that get extra attack, counter attack and re-roll failed pinning and moral checks with furious charge. Scary bad eh?

I can see that being used in a friendly game but it would get crushed utterly in a tournament environment.

So as I type this I feel kind of sad that I decided to run Helbrecht but I am hopeful he will prove me wrong by doing something unexpected.

My goals tomorrow? Win at least one game. That's all, just one little game, not one where my opponent rolls badly or my dice are on fire, just one where I play better than my opponent...we shall see.

Wish me luck!!

Blog Wars 2 take 2

Well, the list I had decided on for Blog Wars 2 has fallen flat, Bloody Games Workshop have made Grimaldus mail order only, and I couldn't take the risk of him not turning up.

So I the list I sent to Alex was the same one I took to Onslaught, and I wasn't happy with it.

So after a second trip to GW I picked up a Helbrecht mini up and submitted a different list in the hope Alex would kindly let me change the army I ran now it included a special character and he agreed.

So...the list I am going to run is a variation of the Grimaldus list;

HQ: Grand Marshall Helbrecht

HQ: 1 Marshal, Chain Fist, Storm Shield, Terminator Armour, Adamantine Mantle

Emperor's Champion, Accept Any Challenge

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Assault Squad

4 Terminator with Lightning Claws, Crusader Seals

5 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield, Crusader Seals

Furious Charge

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad

3 Terminator

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chain fist

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher

Tank Hunter

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad

3 Terminator

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chain fist

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher

Tank Hunter

Troops: Crusader Squad

4 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

1 Initiate with Lascannon

Troops: Crusader Squad

4 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

1 Initiate with Lascannon

Troops: Crusader Squad

4 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

1 Initiate with Lascannon

Basically Ive swapped Grim out for Helbrecht. Not too exciting but i feel better for having a special character in the list again to keep in with the spirit of the tournament.

I can hide him in with the terminators letting them absorb the bulk of the fire as the rush towards the enemy, Helbrecht kicks out alot of attacks but only at S4 which is a shame, still he should hold up well.

I managed to get a start on him tonight and I have to say hI'm finding him a bit of a pig to paint. I have never really liked painting metalics and I want him to be the propper colours so I shall have to persevere.

Only 3 full days untill I get to play what I hope will be some fun games. I will let you know how I got on and how well or badly I did.

Wish me luck!!

Blog Wars

Now then, now then boys and girls!!

I am rather hoping that I will get the opportunity to take part in BLOG WARS 2 on the 3rd of December assuming I can arrange the time off work and I can get a space in the tournament.

I was thinking about what army to take if I did get to go and after a bit of discussion with a mate I decided on a proper fluffy list that should I hope cut the mustard. The tournament asks that all armies take a special character, the Templars being the exception to the rule but really I can see no reason not to.

I only have 2 special characters available to me, High Marshal Helbrecht and Chaplain Grimaldus. I wanted to go for Helbrecht initially, I like the mini and I LOVE the +d3 attacks this dudes pumps out, on the charge he is capable of 8 S4 with one re-roll with a power weapon, that's a bucket load of attacks. Downside, instant death, hes a fair chunk of points to loose to a lascannon or powerfist.

Now, Grimaldus is more points, less attacks and lower leadership so why take him? Ill be running him in a monster assault Terminator unit, 4 claws and 5 hammers with the chump and a Marshal with Shield and Chain fist all hoofing it across the battlefield to get to grips with the bad guys. Grim will help me get there fast, real fast. The unit moves 6", runs upto 6" then if they take a casualty I get to zeal. Grim means my guys auto pass moral as he makes them fearless so when I take casualties they can move another D6 and the crusader seals mean I get a re-roll, the potential for 18" move on foot per game turn. He is also not a bad looking mini and I have neither of the special characters, off to workshop tomorrow to buy them and I`ll have some pics up once I have them done.

The list I intend to run with is as follows;

Total Roster Cost: 1750

HQ: Chaplain Grimaldus

3 Cenobyte Servitors

HQ: 1 Marshal, Chain Fist, Storm Shield, Terminator Armour, Adamantine Mantle

Emperor's Champion, Accept Any Challenge

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Assault Squad

4 Terminator with Lightning Claws, Crusader Seals

5 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield, Crusader Seals

Furious Charge

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad

3 Terminator

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chain fist

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher

Tank Hunter

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad

3 Terminator

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chain fist

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher

Tank Hunter

Troops: Crusader Squad

4 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

1 Initiate with Lascannon

Troops: Crusader Squad

4 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

1 Initiate with Lascannon

Troops: Crusader Squad

4 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

1 Initiate with Lascannon

Baring the Crusader squads, that is a fluffy Templar list, a Sword Brethren attack force. I did have a look at a Black tide list from the days of old but I wouldn't have the time to paint that many marines.

How does the list work (like you couldn't work that out)? Basically, i shove the assault Termies with Grim, the Marshal and the Chump down my opponents throat. The Cyclone Brethren advance on one flank of that unit pumping fire into everything it can then assaulting in support or making a nuisance of themselves, no one can afford to ignore 10 tank hunting Termies advancing up a flank. The crusaders provide supporting fire or even get stuck into combat should I need them to.

Its a list I like, it does everything I want it to, loads of fire and a very, very nasty hammer unit. I may also consider adapting it for normal tournament play by dropping Grim and making the crusader squads bigger or even dumping the saved points into Typhoons. i could even take it to caladonian uprising in January with a few tweeks.

So...there are 10 days between now and Blogwars 2, I have lads comming round to play magic on one day and I'll be going to Bradimus Primes "Win Gym" for our usual weekly 40K mauling. 8 days ....

3 Terminators

1 Grimaldus

3 Servitors

Do-able ? I hope so because that's the task I've set myself if I don't I'll be buggered.

Wish me luck!!

Drop Podding

My my, 3 posts in a week!! unheard of, I've gone 6 months without that many. It is testament to how much I enjoyed Onslaught, it has really fired me up for more fluffy (ish) lists to take to get a battering.

As promised I thought I would have a go at a drop pod list, I've been playing around with Army Builder and all the pure drop pod lists I have managed to come up with have been suited to MSU spam lists which I'm not keen on. The list I finally settled on is a mixture of the pods and foot sloggers (I can see Bradimus Prime smashing his head into a desk shouting IDIOT).

1850 Pts - Black Templars Roster

Total Roster Cost: 1850

HQ: Marshal (6#, 375 pts)

1 Marshal

1 Adamantine Mantle

1 Storm Shield

1 Chain Fist

1 Terminator Command Squad

1 Sergeant

1 Terminator

1 Terminator with Assault Cannon & Chain Fist

1 Terminator with Assault Cannon & Power Fist

Tank Hunters

1 Drop Pod

: Emperor's Champion

1 Emperor's Champion

Accept any challenge

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad

1 Sword Brethren Terminator Squad

3 Terminator

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher

Tank Hunters

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad

1 Sword Brethren Terminator Squad

3 Terminator

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher

Tank Hunters

Troops: Crusader Squad

1 Crusader Squad

7 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

1 Initiate with Meltagun

1 Initiate with Bolt Pistol & Power Fist

Frag Grenades

1 Drop Pod, 30 pts

Troops: Crusader Squad

1 Crusader Squad

7 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

1 Initiate with Meltagun

1 Initiate with Bolt Pistol & Power Fist

Frag Grenades

1 Drop Pod, 30 pts

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron

1 Land Speeder Squadron

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron

1 Land Speeder Squadron

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron

1 Land Speeder Squadron

Heavy Support: Predator Destructor

1 Predator Destructor

2x Lascannons

1x Smoke Launcher

1x Searchlight

As you may know, Templar drop pods come in using the normal reserves rules so I plan that the pods will come in turn 3 or 4 (yeh right). The cyclones and Pred deploy popping armour and generally wreaking havoc with my opponents armour, I can deep strike or reserve the Typhoons if I need to for late game objective grabs or again, deploy for more anti horde or armour.

The Typhoons should be great for dealing the ever present AV 11 Rhino/Razorback and AV 12 Chimeras with AP8 Krak and decent horde control with Heavy Bolters and Frag missiles.

Assuming the dice gods favour me The pods come down on or near objectives, on flanks or behind the lines and a 5 man Terminator squad with tank hunting assault cannons is not to be sniffed at more so in fact as the Marshall is in there and a couple chain fist's for removing those hard to shift tanks. I could change the Marshall's Chain fist for a claw if needed but I have found the fist to be probably the best choice over all.

This list does only have 2 scoring units, this is a BIG risk, deep strike mishap or bad turn being shot at or in combat could end any chance of tanking objective. The plus side is that I can drop them where I want to contest my opponents objectives, the Cyclone Terminators are resilient enough to absorb a fair bit of fire so I can potentially advance them into my opponents line pouring on fire and taking ground.

That is the plan...remember no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.

I have a double raider list ill post up next, and I'm in the middle of painting 2 Typhoons and I hope to get them done by the end of next week so we shall have to see ho much progress I make on them.

I am thinking about changing the vow for the Champion to Abhor the witch, this list will suffer badly against lash and probably suffer against Deamons.

More tinkering to follow!!

Thanks for reading!!

A bit of a quandry....

I love my Assault Terminators....I really love them. They are the most fun and most rewarding unit I run. They almost always find their way into any list I build for the Templar's. My concern is how do I get them into combat.

Looking at the last 5 games I played at onslaught I lost the Raider in games 1 in turn 2, game 4 in turn 1 and game 5 in turn 1.

It was immobilised game 2 in turn 3 but only after it had done its job delivering my Assault Terminators and game 3 it survived after my opponent fired a large number of lances at it

Was I unlucky? Yes, I think I was but its enough to give me pause for thought. The crusader is a cracking piece of kit, it holds all my Terminators, the Marshall and the Champion moves 12 per turn and with smoke it should survive just about everything thrown at it...but it didn't. Its early demise probably cost me game 4, had I got the Terminators into Mikes Deathguard and the Champion and Marshall into his Oblit's the game would have been completely different, now I'm not suggesting I would have won but I sure I wouldn't have gotten smashed.

It lays down an impressive amount of fire, Multi-Melta, twin linked Assault cannon and 2 Hurricane Bolter's. The assault ramp lets me assault in to cover attacking on initiative for my claws which is huge and means I can hit what I want hard and fast. Power of the Machine spirit means I can engage 2 targets in a single firing phase or one if I rattle forward the full 12". On the downside, if it get knocked out early on I'm left with the marines on foot whistling in the wind possibly out of position facing the slog on foot across the board and I'm almost 300 points down.

What are the alternatives?

I've run the Terminators 10 man on foot, 6 Storm Shields and 4 Lightning Claws with the Marshall and EC in there. Very resilient, very hard hitting, it rolls onwards with Righteous Zeal and a run move the potential to move 18" between 1 movement phase and the next. I like this, it also looks good on the table. The unit has the ability to suck up everything my opponent can throw at it and still keep coming. There are however, several downsides, the unit can be pulled around the table, never getting into assault where it need to be to do any good. It can be deep in your opponents half of the table and be too far away to respond to a threat, after all, running and Zeal movements are D6's. Its also easy to get lost, by that I mean be unsure what to do with the unit, where do you go with it? what do you attack? In the current environment mech is king. The unit can also be leaf blown off the table with quantity of fire.

Deep striking is a bit of an unknown to me, I've only tried it once and it failed, big time loosing the whole unit to a misshap in turn 2. The thought of doing this with 400 points of Terminators makes my bum hole tighten. This option is out....

Drop podding is another option. This would allow me to deposit a small 5 man unit more or less where I want them allowing them to assault the following turn assuming they survive or what I want them to kill has stuck about long enough to get smashed. This does also mean I have the ability to dump a unit on an objective to contest. However, again with some dodgy dice and I'm rolling on the misshap table, dangerous stuff. I'm also not too comfortable running a unit of 5 Terminators, maybe running them in a ration 1/4 Claws to Hammers or 2/3. They also come in like normal reserves, meaning I may not see a unit untill turn 5 which means over 260ish points have done bugger all, not a happy thought.

This might be worth a go, I would have to double up, running 2 units both in pods, meaning I would have to think about how to support those units as they drop in.

Food for thought perhaps.

Although I have started to play in tournaments I'm still a fluff bunny at heart, the Drop Pod assault list really appeals to me. My usual opponent keeps telling me I'm an idiot for entertaining the idea but still, I'm tempted, a good mix of fire power and drop podding nastiness make my knees weak.

Ill have a think about it and post a list or two in the next few days.

thoughts or comments? anyone?? hello???

Onslaught

Well, what a weekend, this was my 3rd tournament and by far the best. The venue was Cut and Thrust in Bristol a fantastic shop with awesome gaming facilities. If you in the area nip in and have a gander!!

It was 5 games over 2 days and 350 miles or so from my house so myself and Bradimus Prime had to set off at 4am to be there on time.

There should have been 50 players but after drop outs that shrunk to 42. I ran Black Templar, a kinda hybrid assault/gun line list, it did what I wanted it to but not anywhere near as well as I needed it to.

The list looked like this;

Black Templars 1750

HQ

Marshall (185 points)

Terminator Armour 25 points

Chainfist 30 points

Storm Shield 15 points

Adamantite Mantle 35 points

Emperor`s Champion (140 points)

Accept any challenge 50 points

Elite

Sword Brethren Terminator Assault Squad (556 points)

2 with lightning claws 86 points

4 with Thunder hammers 172 points

Furious Charge 10 points

1 Landraider Crusader

Blessed Hull 25 points

Dozer Blade 5 points

Smoke Launcher 3 points

Venerable Dreadnought (163 points)

Multi-Melta 10 points

Heavy Flamer 10 points

Extra Armour 5 points

Smoke Launchers 3 points

Venerable 20 points

Furious Charge 10 points

Sword Brethren Terminator Squad (265 points)

3 Terminators 129 points

2 Terminator Cyclone Launchers 138 points

Troop

Crusader Squad (148 points)

4 Bolt Pistol + Chainsword 64 points

1 Lascannon 31 points

Rhino 50 points

Smoke Launcher 3 points

Crusader Squad (148 points)

4 Bolt Pistol + Chainsword 64 points

1 Lascannon 31 points

Rhino 50 points

Smoke Launcher 3 points

Crusader Squad (145 points)

4 Bolt Pistol + Chainsword 64 points

1 Lascannon 31 points

Rhino 50 points

These are brief run downs of the games

Game 1 V's Mike Collins Space wolves

Mike is on the Welsh 40k team and it showed but I had a great game, he was running with a Thunder Lord and 4 thunder wolves, I had never encountered these before and I have to say I should have mashed them but alas it was not to be. Turns 1-3 I had it all my own way but then the raider got popped and the termies got pinned, bad news, the ven dread got stuck in and held up 2 thunder hammers and a powerfist for 5 assault phases before I failed to do anything with the assault marines and I lost them on the grind, turns 4-6 went very very badly and I lost 3 KP to 9.

Great opponent, great game. After the game Mike was kind enough to give me a "where I went wrong" rundown which was great. I hope I get to play him again.

Loss

Game 2 Dan Edom's Eldar

I thought I was going to have trouble with this army, I always seem to struggle with Eldar lists however, the dice gods spanked him up, down left and right. I dealt with his Fire Dragons early on and popped a transport or two in the early game and he failed to do anything, nothing, nadda.... I took his objective and he failed to take mine, he killed 1 terminator and immobilised the raider but that was it, I in return killed or destroyed about half his army. His dice hated him that day, he either hit nothing or hit and failed to wound or pen. It was not a great game, the poor guy wasn't able to put up any resistance. Another great opponent, fingers crossed ill get a game with him at caledonian uprising in January if he goes, I hope the dice gods smile on him.

Win

Game 3 Rob Madley Dark Eldar

This was table quarters with 5 objectives.

I wanted to play Dark Eldar, my LR Crusader had Blessed Armour and I hopped this would save my Bacon. Not so, Rob is a great player, he outplayed me all game, grabbing 3 objectives early on and then applying pressure on the objective I had meaning that I could never get out of my table quarter. the highlight for me was the assault terminators smashing into 18 Helions and and winning combat by 16. The ven Dread once again showed its worth absorbing 8 lance hits and then tying up a beast pack. the game ended 2 objectives to 1. Rob is a very careful player, great at manoeuvring, he out played me turns 1-6. Yet another guy I would willingly play again.

Loss

At the end of day 1 I had played 3 cracking opponents and had lost 2 and won 1.

Day 2 comes around and I have a nice surprise, in the morning before the pairings are anounced Im asked to leave my army out over the lunch break as I had been nominated for best painted army!!

Game 4 Mike Foulks Chaos Space Marines

Hows this for starting a game with confidence, before I met my opponent Brad says to me "He running a lash list, I think your gonna have bother with it". I had only faced lash once before, with mech guard and I had smashed it in 4 turns, to I thinks to myself "nothing to worry about".

WRONG

Turn one my Raider got popped after absorbing 10 Lascannon shots from Landraiders and Oblits then my Termies ended up getting shoved into a nice, easy to plasma cannon pile then shoved back towards my table edge. I managed to kill of a unit of Deathguard, a squad of Oblits, 3 Chaos Terminators and a Deamon Prince. I managed to hang onto one objective but Mike had 3 at the bottom of tun 7 and I suffered my 3rd loss...I think I was as unlucky as anything else, Mike at one point apologised to me for the dice he was rolling, I think he felt the same way about this game as I did on my second. Great opponent, hope to play again at some point.

Game 5 - Andrew Brampton Imperial Guard

This was a beautifully painted army, loads of freehand work on the Chimeria top hatches. Stunning. This one was kill points and table quarters. Things went well for Andrew turn 1. Once again I lost the Landraider but this time to a Manticore direct hit .... once again the Termies were walking. That's as well as it went for him, I popped 3 chimeras turn 1 and then 3 more turn 2 also immobilising a Russ, the termies went forward and dealt with the infantry scoring me a total of 9 Vp's over 6 turns. By the end of the game he had 1 immobilised Russ and about 10 infantry left. I won convincingly 19 VP to 3. We had both done so badly we were playing for fun and that it was, a great game against a very sporting opponent.

This was great fun, I came in 25th and won Best painted army - players choice. I was well made up with that.

Ill go through how the army performed in another post later on, may be after the weekend.

Von Muller

More of the same

Well, if anyone still reads this blog you may be interested to know, I am in fact alive.

I've been painting like crazy tying to get a 1750 Black Templar army painted for a tournament in Bristol this coming weekend. When I agreed to go 2 weeks ago I had a mountain of minis to paint, 15 marines, 2 Rhino, 1 Terminator, venerable dread and a land raider....At the rate I usually paint that's enough to keep me going for 3 months.

Well as of last night I have everything done bar 5 marines and they are at the 50% done mark, I'm rather pleased with myself if I'm honest at the speed at which Ive completed the project and I'm mostly happy with the resulting paint jobs.

Ill post my list and the horrors I faced after the weekend but for now Ill drop some pics in of the stuff I got painted in the last weeks.

The free hand is not something Ive ever really tried before. I am VERY happy with the way this has turned out. Not bad I think for a first attempt. I'm running 3 squads in Rhinos with Pistols and swords with a Las Cannon in each for long range firepower to support the cyclone Termies. I hope its enough.

The Raider is not finished yet, I need to damage the hull up a bit like I did with my Rhinos to make it fit better with the rest of the army. The Land raider is the only way the disconcerting Assault Terminator should travel.

This Pic is before I gave it its first coat of sealer, I used Purity seal which then went all frosty on me, the result inst all that bad as the dull coat managed to repair most of the damage. I will never use GW Purity Seal again. It almost destroyed 10 hours of work on a forge world mini. You may notice that the banner with the dead dude strapped to it is missing. I really didn't like it on this fella so I decided to leave it off. I may use it on a 2Nd raider at some point.

I hope you like what you see.

Von Muller out

Not so fine, fine cast Emperors Champion

Look at me, another week and another post.

A Black Templar army has to include an Emperors Champion as part of its force Organisation. There`s no way round it he is a have to have in the list. But why would ou not want him? He`s fantastic for the points, all 90 of them with vows that effect your army even if he get vaporised.

The only vow I use is Accept any Challenge no matter what the odds at the princely sum of 50 points. This give your ENTIRE army the preferred enemy universal rule, yes that's right if it aint a vehicle you get to re-roll failed to hits in assault. This means that your Lightning Claw terminators re-roll hits and wounds which then re-roll to wound, even your dreadnoughts get the re-rolls!!

I wanted the Champion to stand out from my Templar so after doing some looking on the web I came across a couple of guys that painted theirs white or with large amounts of white on them so I thought I pinch the idea.

The shield is from scribor and the cloak is just some very thin greenstuff with some jeweller`s chain.

Its worth mentioning that this is the 11th EC model i bought, all the others had large imperfections on them and even this model has a whacking great fissure running horizontally about 50 mm long just below the breastplate. I gave up taking it back in the end and made do deciding it actually looked OK so I didn't bother to fill it with greenstuff.

Thanks for reading

Rick

Project Mechanicus Scenery

Hello again you horde of avid readers (if only)

Its been a week or two since my last post but after a stint under the surgeons knife I managed to get this piece done during my sick time when I could sit down.

Me and Brad have decided we need to update our scenery as most of it is spray painted black and dry brushed silver or grey. Now I have an airbrush it makes getting nice even coats on large areas fairly easy once you have the paint mix right.

I find that I prefer to work with very thin paints in lots of light layers, I get best results (so far) watering GW paints 1 part paint to 8-10 parts car windscreen washer fluid and Vellejo paints 1 part paint to 5-8 parts car windscreen washer fluid depending on the paint thickness. I've yet to find a GW foundation paint that will go through the brush without clogging it up.

I base coated this with chaos black first then built up layers of Scab Red adding Blood red for coats 3 and 4 spraying at 45 degrees down onto the building then finally giving the whole model a final highlight of the final red mix with 1/1 Orange again sprayed at 45 degrees. Once that was dry I then sealed it with a thin coat of Satin Varnish to stop the paint rubbing off.

The whole building was then washed with Devlan mud, Badab Black then Vellejo Smoky Brown Ink all thinned 1/1 with car windscreen washer fluid ( I love this stuff for paint thinning). It was just a matter then of picking out rivets, dials and the Mechanicus symbols and all the other bits etc to finish it all off.

The flooring is a sheet of 4mm black plasti-card with the GW movement tray making up the chessboard style flooring. The rubble is sand and PVA glue mixed and some cut and trimmed sprue for fallen girders.

I'm pleased with this building , other than the Space marine statue its really the only piece of scenery I have done. The airbrush is fantastic for this kind of work, I have a large corner building to do in the same style so I think I may do a step by step for anyone that is interested.

Thanks for reading if anyone does (excluding Dr Titch!!)

Von Muller

Making a Scene

I've been talking about getting an airbrush for some time now and having chewed the fat with the wife and some suggestions from my regular opponent Brad (of the Space wolves Blog fame) I went ahead and bought one.

What fun I've had, and frustrations. Getting the paint mix right is difficult, too thick and you have to unblock and clean the airbrush and to thin the paint wont cover and you end up with splatter marks everywhere.

Ive not tried to paint any miniatures with it yet but I figured that the easiest thing to practice on was scenery.

Our scenery at the moment is pretty basic so I thought i'd try and get something more impressive on the table and I've been looking for an excuse to buy the Honoured Imperium set, Its got a giant Space marine statue, what's not to like!!

This took me two attempts but it turned out nice on the second.

I primed it with chaos black, then did a 1/1 mix of chaos black and Adeptus Battlegrey, then started adding white until I was happy with final colour.

I then sealed it with GW Purity Seal to stop the thin layers of paint coming off.

I then washed the minature with Devlan mud mixed 1/1 with car windscreen cleaner and when dried a wash of Badab Black again mixed 1/1 with car windscreen cleaner.

I then added some Army Painter Jungle Tuft in the recesses to give the impression of it being stood for may years.

Finally, I know that its going to take some knocking so I gave it a coat of Testors Dullcoat to flatten the shine, protect from chipping and help the tufts to adhere to the model.

My intention is to build a Memorial garden on an A4 size sheet of plasticard for this to sit in, Im looking at the Garden of Morr set and the Aquilla from the Honoured Imperium set. I need to pick the bits up before I can get stated

Im in the process of doing an Adeptus Mechanicus building which Ill post up when complete.

Thanks for reading (If anyone does)

Von Muller