Dark Angels - part II - Veteran

During the last week I got another of my angels assembled and painted. This time I wanted to try out how to do a robed miniature, as that is somewhat common in the Dark Angels army.
So I acquired a box of the Dark Angels veterans and put together one of them, or to be totally frank, I just put together the body and left the arms, head, shoulder pads and backpack off so that I could paint them without getting in the way all the time.
I did however get a bit disappointed over the molding of the body I choose, the details was kind of soft, and the chest eagle was almost impossible to paint as the feathers disappeared under just a thin coat of paint. I can't say if it's just my sprue thats a bit wonky, of if the mold was bad all along or just old. But I got a bit frustrated when it was mostly a flat area that I tried to get some paint on.

Any how, I decided to go with transfers on the shoulder pad, but after over 10 years of not using such things I have to say that putting them on the shoulders was not the most simple thing in the world, I even ended up tearing it a bit just as it had begun to set... So I had to to the best out of it.

Over all though I'm quite happy with the result, I might have to try to get a bit on contrast in the cloak with some other colour on the inside just as the minis GW has done, Ill have to see. This one will stand as it is for the time being.

I still haven't decided on a base, I'm thinking that I should do some dark swamp kind of thing, with pools of water and twisted trees/shrubbery. That would imply that I need to dirty my figures up a bit, at least at their feet, and that perhaps wouldn't be the most terrible thing.

Dark Angels - part I - Colour test

After I saw some pictures of the miniatures included in the upcoming starter set, I was tempted to recreate an army lost to me about 10 years ago; the Dark Angels.
So until the starter set actually get here I dug up an old marine I had, and started to test some colour schemes on him.

I plan to take my time with this army, and paint them as good as possible, this try out took me about four evenings to get together, that did include some research about how to paint different parts and a few false starts on the armour.

I haven't done any chapter or squad marking, or a backpack for that matter as I only planed to test some thoughts I have, how I should do the chapter and squad markings remains to bee seen. I might go so far that I make them out of green stuff and stick them on each mini. But that is a matter for another day.

For now I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out, and I plan to get another mini together, perhaps make one with robes so I can try out how I want them to look as well.

For now, here are some more pictures;

Battle report: Space Marines VS Imperial Guard

I played another game with my fiancée this weekend, this time I “forced” her to play with my less than completely painted marines. They are a bit more forgiving, and I wanted her to try something that’s a bit more forgiving, so that mistakes can be made, and they will not ruin everything.

She ended up with a force consisting of;

1 10 man tactical squad w/ Missile launcher

1 10 man tactical squad w/ Heavy bolter and Flamer

1 5 man assault squad w/ Plasma pistol and Power sword

I used the same Imperial guard force as last time, and that consisted of;

1 Command squad w/ Melta gun and Medic

2 Infantry squads w/ Flamer and Vox

1 Command squad w/ Standard

2 Infantry squads w/ Grenade launcher

1 Veteran squad w/ 3 Plasma guns

This is what our setup looked like, both tactical squads was deployed as combat squads.

Imperial Guard 1

I won the first turn and started of with advancing the entire battle line, trying to get into range with a few of the marines. In the shooting phase the center squads successfully downed two marines from the squad with the missile launcher, on the right flank one marine in the heavy bolter squad fell to sustained las fire.

Space Marines 1

All but the heavy weapon squads advanced, more or less successfully, the center squad got realy stuck in some rocks and could only more a few inches.

In the center the fire from the two tactical squads only took down a few guardsmen after some lucky cover rolls from me, but on the right flank the leading squad fared a bit worse, and lost half of its members, and promptly fled.

Imperial Guard 2

The advanced stalled a bit in the imperial second turn, in the center and on the right general feeling was that cover was a good idea, but on the left no marine fire had found the squads there, so they advanced, taking careful aim on the assault marines in the front of the marines advance.

The firing phase was not a good one for anyone in power armour, not a single save was made for the assault marines and all that was visible to any of the guards get shot down, leaving only a single survivor that failed his moral test and fled of the board in a gigantic leap. My fiancée was not very impressed with the dice right then. On the left another marine fell after being bombarded with lasgun fire from the remaining squad there.

Space Marine 2

The remaining mobile squads continued forward while the heavies stayed put. The firing was incredible disappointing as the heavy bolter and advancing squad only managed to kill a single member of the command squad on the left. In the center the missile launcher missed everything as well, but his squad mates and the advancing squad took out at least two more veterans.

Mostly this was a turn of incredibly bad dice for my fiancée and above average for me. This however was about to change…

Imperial Guard 2

Naturally my fleeing squad did not regroup, and left the board.

On the far left my command squad ran into the building (or ruin as we classed all buildings on the board) while the center styed still and the one squad on the far left advanced, hoping to get into the back of the space marine lines, hopefully dispatching the heavies there.

The shooting was far from impressive as on the right the advancing squad shrugged of lots of lasgun hits, but at least one finally fell to the command squads melta gun. In the center and left everything fired of the advancing squad in the center, but even though I hit with a lot of shots, almost none wounded, and only one armour save was failed. The success from the previous turn did not continue…

Space Marine 3

This turn the things I dreaded started to happened, as the marines on the right got close enough to attempt a charge, the center one was still quite a bit away.

The fire from the center squads took down my veterans hard, whipping them out after some good rolling. On the right the heavy bolter squad failed with most shots, but still killed one of the guardsmen hiding in the house.

Then the assault came, and my command on the right didn’t have a chance. Even though the marines missed with most attacks, they still killed two and the guards did squat in return, and then fled the field (but at least they did not get run down by the marines).

Imperial Guard 4

My command fled of the board as a good start for this turn, and the rest of my forces shuffled around a bit, with the exception of my, now midfield squad that continued forward, setting up for some rapid fire action on the center marines. And rapid fire they did, killing three of the squad members, making the remaining sergeant flee!

Other than that not much was good for the guards, as every other hit that was scored was saved.

It was beginning to look really grim for the proud guardsmen.

Space marine 4

On the right the squad there moved up to get closer to the infantry hiding in the house, readying their flamer, while on the back the remaining sergeant moved into the house right next to him.

The shooting saw all but the sergeant of the squad in the house get killed from flamer, blot pistol and heavy bolter action, leaving him alive all by himself to face the charge of the three crazed marines. The short of it all, he did not survive the experience.

In the center two of the advancing squad fell to bolter and missile.

Imperial Guard 5

The situation was quite critical at the moment, so the squad in the front advanced to get surviving sergeant and the command in the back spread out a bit to avoid some of the inevitable flamer action they was about to receive. The shooting brought nothing good, as the fire on the lone sergeant had no effect and the same on the squad in my side. So I charged the lone sergeant, hoping that my massed attack would be better than a few lasgun shots. But this was not to be as he easily shrugged of any hits, and proceeded to crush one guardsman with his powerfist. Still the guard held, that was at least something.

Space Marine 5

The heavy bolter squad started to move more to the center to get some new fire arcs in, and the missile squad got in position to counter charge my squad in the back. In the guard back the flamer squad there first flamed my command, then ran into assault. Amazingly though not a single guardsman died, and the result was a standoff.

In the back then the missile squad countercharged, and killed two marines in short order, and not losing any in return. But still the guards held. But the situation was more than desperate now, the marines almost outnumbered the remaining guardsmen, and that is not something to strive for…

Imperial Guard 6

The only squad that could move, doid so to get closer to the three crazy marines in my back, ans as they could shoot at nothing they charged in to help the command squad. This did not work, and instead all but one in the command died and then fled, the new squad did hold but did nothing to the marines.

The other assault was quickly over, as the marines killed most guardsmen that then fled and got run down.

At this point I conceded the game, giving my fiancée a resounding victory, having crushed everything before her.

Imperial Guard - part XXV - Manticore

My Manticore is now done. I've painted it basically the same way as all my other tanks. This time though I have also tried a little weathering on tracks and the lover parts of the tank.

As the thought is that this army fights in a desert/steppe kind of environment, I used quite light colors to make the weathering bit, and this made them more or less invisible when it was done… Oh well it's at least a bit more texture on the tank even if it's only visible really close up.

Here are a few photos of how it turned out.

Overall I'm quite happy with it, and I'm sure it's going to cause some havoc on the field of battle.

Battle report: Eldar VS Imperial Guard

This weekend my fiancée wanted to play something, normally we play some board or card game, but this time I asked if she wanted to try some miniature game instead.

So it ended in me showing her how 40k is played. As she haven't played any miniature game before, we started of with just a few models per side, no vehicles, and no fancy stuff what so ever, only a few troops on each side.

To start with I had to explain in a few words what the different armies I have is in the 40k world, using references mostly to World of Warcraft as she plays this quite a lot. I have never thought about it, but when we discussed the Imperial Guard she said "Oh, so they are kind of like the goblins" and I have to say that she kind of hit the mark with that one, if you ignore the green part of the goblins that is.

But anyways, we ended up with me taking charge of some Imperial Guard, and she got a bunch of Eldar. The armies was about 500 points of what I could find on short notice so we had this;

Eldar

12 Guardian defenders w/ Star Cannon

12 Guardian defenders w/ Bright Lance

10 Storm guardians w/ 2 Fusion guns

6 Jetbikes w/ 2 Shuriken cannons

Imperial Guard

1 Command squad w/ Melta gun and Medic

2 Infantry squads w/ Flamer and Vox

1 Command squad w/ Standard

2 Infantry squads w/ Grenade launcher

1 Veteran squad w/ 3 Plasma guns

We used the small table I've created before and filled it up with terrain and I started the quite lengthy explanation to how this thing works.

After this we started our setup, we didn't use any objectives of mysterious terrain or anything like that, I thought it was more than enough to concentrate on the very basics of the game.

I had the first turn of the game and just advanced everything I had. Tanking a few shots at long range. Here the flaw in my showing of the game to new people started, as I rolled like a god, hitting far more than I should have, and my fiancée failing almost every save she had to take. This was unly to get worse as the game continued.

But for this turn I shot a few of the defenders on the right, and another few of the storm guardians in the center.

In her turn I gave the tip, that her jetbikes are dead hard, and they can move in the assault phase, great for jumping in front of cover and then back again. So this she did and I could see how she would slay almost everything I had on the left flank. The rest of her units advanced, mostly in cover.

The jetbikes then… well they didn't do as well as they should have in the shooting, but at least they killed a little over half of the leftmost squad, while the center defenders shot another two in one of my center squads as that was all they could reach. But in the assault when the bikes should have had no problem to get back behind the house, they rolled only 3" and could get nowhere at all.

In my second round I advanced most of my army again, getting closer to the eldar lines. And when the shooting came around we had a serious case of the dice loving me, and hating my fiancée. On the right the front squad annihilated most of the defenders right in front of them, so much that the veterans behind them could hardly hit anyone. In the end only a single guardian was left.

In the center the reduced squad shot at the center defenders, taking out a good bunch of them as well.

But most depressing was on the left where one full squad and the reduced infantry squad managed to take down four of the jetbikes. She could not make a single of the 3+ saves she had to take.

When it was the eldar turn again, she was getting a bit frustrated with her dice, but I pointed out that my full infantry squad on the left was very close to her close combat experts, and that they should have no problem killing them off, even if she had to charge though the difficult terrain, after all, guardsmen suck in close combat. So she advanced the storm squad, and the other guardians to get a bit closer to use the 12" range of the catapults. And on the right the remaining guardians fired the bright lance and vaporized a veteran, and the center squad fired into the squad in front, killing a few and made them break. On the far left the remaining jetbikes tries to kill some more of the reduced squad, but not a single hit is scored, even though the catapults is twin linked...

The storm squad fired their pistols into the squad in front of them, killing a few, and then they charge home. And here they failed again, getting two guardians killed, for no casualties for the imperial side. Here I really start to think that my dice loves me, and hates anyone else that uses them. The guardians hold at least.

In what would be the last turn we played I again advanced with my whole army, except for the broken squad, that fails to rally and again runs closer to the board edge. The veterans fire upon the defender squad in the center, killing all but one and the squad in the center advances so they can charge into the storm guardians. On the left the command squad and remains of the infantry squad fire upon the jetbikes, but fail to do anything at all.

In the assault phase the infantry squad charges, and even though the guardians have a much better round, killing two guardsmen, they still loose all but one, and they flee from combat.

Here we stop as most of the imperials are still standing, but on the eldar side there are three units with just one model in them, and two jetbikes.

So my track record for showing people how to play (and letting them win) is kind of bad, but my fiancée wasn't discouraged, and wanted to try it again. So another game is planed for to be played this week, but this time I think she will get to use the far more forgiving Space Marines I have, we also ordered some new dice, so she can have her own tat doesn't hate her from the start =)