Sunday 23 January 2011

246 Awww...Rats!

So: it looks like I missed my chance.

I realised last night that I'm too late to register for the tourney I was intending to not take awfully seriously: 'Plymouth At War 2011'.

Ho-hum.

On the plus side, I got some painting done last night. A Pyrrhic victory.

I might just post an army list later...

- Drax.

Tuesday 18 January 2011

245 Medusa Conversion

Hi, All.

So I've been wondering what to do with my old basilisk turrets, having mostly converted the chassis to give them the option of carrying griffon mortars (which are way more fun)...and then I realised a simple and useful conversion was staring me in the face.

Cue a chunky pen lid, some cardstock and some tweaking - I'm particularly happy with the vents bored in the muzzle inner (NB: The new painting's only a basecoat):
...and it can still work as a basilisk, should the need (ever) arise:
Plans are afoot, me hearties: another small-scale local tournament approaches, beckoning me to...er...not take it very seriously...!

Yay!

- Drax.

Saturday 8 January 2011

244 Necron-ymous Heroes

So...

I got back to the club last night after a long drought and played my first game in ages: 2000pts Vs Necrons. My opponent (let's call him 'Ant') and I were running late but we still figured it'd be fun to see how far we got into the game. This isn't a battle report - just thoughts with pictures.

Both of us had brought generic, non-beardy lists and we'd agreed that it was a game to try stuff out and have a laugh. I'll post my list separately soon.

We rolled 'Capture and Control' with 'Pitched Battle' deployment and I chose to go second. In essence, two of Ant's units (wraiths and an awesome tomb stalker) rolled-up my right flank and took me apart unit-by-unit. My Guardsmen put up a valiant fight but ultimately sthey really struggled to hurt Necrons...who just went a got back up again anyway. We had to wrap up half-way through turn four, and although I would've drawn at the end of turn 4, by turn 5 I'd've been mincemeat.

Photos First:

My left flank and objective - note new HQ Salamander to the rear of the ruins:
My 'sacrificial' right flank - sacrified for fun rather than tactics:
Ant's right flank (my left) with his Destroyer Lord (I love the shiny 'bug' carapace painting!):
Ant's centre:
Ant's left flank sweeping inevitably and inexorably in toward my right:
Here's Ant's fantastic Tomb Stalker:
And here's a very lonely grenadier shocked to discover that he alone of his platoon is still alive ... alive and charging past the Staker to a glorious bayonetty death in the Necron lines:

Post-Game Thoughts (in no particular order):
  • Ant was a shrewd and very sporting opponent - one of those who's really pleasant to play against;
  • I got to field my new Salamander - hooray! It did fine.
  • Ant generously deployed in a very conventional, non-beardy way, and I did my best to mirror this: I didn't play the old Guard trick of castling up solely on my (corner) objective and making his cool units trudge the length of the board: I deliberately spaced units across to make it a bit more fun. I'm glad too - it did!
  • My missile launchers were crap all game...not for the first time;
  • Necron Destroyers are awesomely useful, if surprisingly vulnerable;
  • My mortar team did well...and even pinned a unit of necrons!
  • Marbo's deployment was fun (to Ant's dismay) but I foolishly placed him behind cover, thus affording his demo-charge victims a 4+ cover save: rats!
  • My Platoon command squads aquitted themselves well; as did the autocannon squad;
  • Yet again, my Devil Dog was surprisingly useful;
  • Resurrection Orbs are horrid, horrid devices. I love their rules...except that the (otherwise 'dead') Lord lies there prone on the ground for my entire turn without my troops being allowed to,say, destroy him or tear his body apart for souvenirs...and then he pops up again on a 4+ (and again the next time...). Grrr.
  • My Primaris Psyker did okay;
  • I combined all three squads in one platoon. Not because it made tactical sense, but because it's something I don't often do; it'd make gameplay quicker and it'd be a juicier target for Ant's awesome tomb stalker. I did; it did and they were.
  • Wraiths are good at their job;
  • Ant's army is very nicely painted;
  • My reserve rolls were good;
  • Yet again (see left) my Penal Legionnaires had a good game;
  • My scatter rolls were almost all bang-on: always encouraging!
  • My grenade launchers were less useful than they often are.
  • My Leman Russes did a good job - they were there to die but put up a bit of a fight.

My main conclusions are as follows:

  1. The Tomb Stalker (as well as being an awesome model) is very intimidating and a real monster against squishy guard - predictably it wiped out my combined squad (even though it only killed three!) Essentially I had nothing that could hurt it in close combat apart from my Penal Legionnaires and my Sentinel(!) and they were both busy with higher priorities. Shooting too: str 3 weapons simply cannot wound toughness 7 - full stop.
  2. The game was enjoyable and instructional. I could've taken a far more anti-Necron army, but that's not the game we were after, and it's not my style. We both wanted non-tailored lists, and sadly, I just couldn't kill enough of the blighters comprehensively enough!
  3. Given the army, mission and set-up, I could have deployed more ruthlessly and fought to an eventual draw, but it would've been a very dull game - especially for his tomb stalker, which would've defeated the object of the game somewhat.

The saddest thing was this: at the end of the game, Ant helpfully advised me that a useful anti-Cron tactic is to force a Phase-Out. I didn't have the heart to tell him that that's actually what I was trying to do as best I could with the weapons I had in range...I just utterly, utterly failed to achieve it! I couldn't even stop the buggers from WBB-ing!

Looks like my lads' lasguns may finally have met their match...

Thanks for your time, readers,

- Drax.

PS: Heres another pic of James's awesome Ork army - here in action against Daemons on the next table:

Saturday 1 January 2011

243 Painting Across the Pond - Drax Edition Pt I

Happy New Year, All!

...And what better way to kick off 2011 than with a fun new project?

After some email exchanges last year knocking some ideas about, The Inner Geek and I have decided to swap and paint a couple of each other's minis.

The Concept

Essentially, he won a competition of mine whereby I offered to paint up an unloved and unpainted miniature, and being the generous chap he is, he also offered to paint up a mini for me in exchange: how lovely!

The Mini

Anyway, here's what the Geek sent to England-land for me to paint up for him:
An Ogryn! (more importantly, one of the new, cool-looking ogryns)...but wait, there's more, for in his kindness he also sent me a gift to join the ranks of my own forces:
A female IG model (Guardswoman?)! Awesome! What makes her even better is the following: (1) it's a good cast; (2) she's not all breasty, scantily-clad and 'high' fantasy, and (3) she looks [point 2 notwithstanding] not unlike Mrs Drax...but in flak armour. Awesome. Sorry about the ropey pics.

Painting Plans

Hmmm...I'm looking forward to both of these for different reasons. With the Ogryn I'm looking forward to the challenge of painting him - not least because I've been meaning to work on shading some skin tones. I'd love to give his armour the look of having been fashioned from vehicle armour plates, so I'm starting to thing about ways to do that.

With The Girl, how I model her will depend on just what I want to do with her. For a couple of years now I've been meaning to base (sorry, Ron!) the Regimental Mascot, and as he is essentially hers in real life, I might just put them together...maybe they can make some sort of objective marker too, when needed, but the trouble is I'm unsure about the lasgun. I can't envision anything too twee like her throwing a ball for him, but if I use her in this role, then she'll need something other than the lasgun, I think. Any suggestions gratefully received!

Anyhow, make sure you check out The Inner Geek's first project entry - I've sent him a corker of a miniature secure in the knowledge that it's in very safe painting hands!

Thanks for reading, do please weigh in with any thoughts or encouragement, and here's to a successful 2011!

- Drax.