EPIC28

Playing EPIC in 28mm.

Friday 9 December 2011

The Imperial way of war.

A huge mob of IG.

Interesting article here http://pathfinder-devilin.blogspot.com/2011/12/40k-6th-edition-what-needs-fixing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FCFmrO+%28Pathfinder%29 about 'improving' 40K. Suneokun's ideas about the FOC and adjusting army lists for flufftastic reasons are good, IMHO.

The way he mentions the manner in which (and he uses the blood angles as his example) an army chooses to deploy itself is rarely as contrived as the normal 40k pick up game seems to make it.

For instance: the majority of campaigns against the Great Enemy are fought against the heretics and renegades of the traitor guard types - the Vraksians, Blood Pact, Sons of Sek and all of their jolly bunch of chums. Now, as hobbyists we do have options for heads and other parts to build these armies out of, but considering that this is the one major fighting force in the 40K universe that all of the other armies are fighting all of the time, they are supported only by Forge World ?!?! Shurely some mistake.

Oh well, getting back to the point: It is entirely conceivable that armies are organised in ways other than as presented in the various codices. For instance the Black Guardians of Ulthwe are a 'professional army' without being aspect warriors. This could be reflected, not just in the fluff and the statlines, but in the way they are organised as well; armed and equipped as soldiers (equal to the aspect warriors) rather than militia (vanilla guardians). They might have snipers, D cannon teams, jump troops, squad special weapons, odd squad sizes (squads of five that can mob up and split off as ordered during the game).

Most SM are described as being deployed as a 'strike force', deploying from a space ship, rarely something as grandeous as a battle barge (which seem to be reserved for multi SM Company actions). So the SM Strike Force Commander has a limited amount of material with which to complete his mission. He can get fuel, water, food etc from worlds en route. He may be able to request munitions from the Deptmento (although I can see that ending in tears). Essentially he has a very small force (of admittedly, super human genetic freaks in powered armour), with a finite amount of material with which to complete his mission. Once he is out of special 'won't-fit-IG-ammo' rockets for his missile launcher, his bolt is blown, game over, pack up and go home. They may be super tuf, but they are not war winners. If you want some individual dead, one or two objectives taken, psychos for a forlorn hope for something like that, then yes, the SM are your men. If you want to win a whole war and hold the ground you capture, you need the IG.

The Departmento launches IG armies into campaigns, usually with a huge logistical tail. There are departmento labour corps to conduct civil engineering works and supply and maintain the fighting end. There are supply chains stretching back tens of worlds, all focussed on the eventual aim of allowing the pointy bit to do its job. All of this is a huge effort and does take a long time to set in motion. In galactic terms it is not strategically agile (although this does not mean that individual IG armies cannot locally be agile; just that they are tied to their supply chain). IG win wars. If the High Lords send a serious IG army to your world, they will win.

So there is your campaign basis: the SM player is not allowed to replace any casualties he takes. At all. The IG player, like the 'nids, always has the endless wave replacement rule going. This 'realism' could be extended to other armies. Although I have no idea how.

Saturday 26 November 2011

Consolidation

17 Div is now in control of the port city of Randstad. 901Bde (Cadian and Arcomet assets) remain in the city, with the air mobile assets using the former processional way as their base and the Divisional Artillery deployed into the squares and plazas of the eastern city. 902Bde are conducting Battalion scale sweeps , pushing out from the immediate vicinity of Randstad; mechanized units moving out to key locations as the PBI scour the area in slower time, ensuring the area is clear of rebel forces.
It’s a dry cold wind that blows from the interior of Continental Benq to clash with the wet cold south westerlies coming off the southern ocean. The 158 soldiers of Company C, Kado (Valhallan) 540th Infantry are picking their way cautiously eastwards, into the interior. A patchwork of farmland is beginning to give way to the rolling prairies of the interior. These prairies are the home of the nomadic grox herders who provide the second strand of the export value that is the reason for the Imperium’s war of reclamation.
The men are uniformly dressed in the Shinel (Greatcoat) as even with the bitter cold, these men think it too warm to warrant their winter uniform telogreika (padded jacket) and vatnie sharovari (padded trousers).
The company is spread out in platoon combat formations, ready for action. They have been advancing forwards for ten days now, methodically moving and consolidating alongside their fellow infantry companies for ten days now. Some days they have patrolled in daylight, checking signs for enemy activity. At others, they had hidden up during the day, hidden from enemy view, with Comrade Podpolkovnik (Colonel) Komenichi and his company and platoon leaders moving their men into ambush positions after dark and then awaiting for the “People’s Libertine Army” to show itself.
This afternoon, the Colonel is moving Company C from its layup position towards their ambush site; the men will march to within a mile of the ambush site in day light. Only after full darkness will they slip into the selected ambush positions.
The method works well for the 540th, in the past ten days, they have sprung three night ambushes, killed sixteen of the enemy and captured numerous autoguns and las rifles. Against this, they have lost two of their own men KIA with four more wounded and evacuated by Valkyrie. In two more days the 540th will have finshed their sweep pattern and will march back into the city to be replaced by dug in observation posts who can call on mechanized units, artillery and fast air to control the Randstad region. A few of the guardsmen maintain that being in the field is actually better, as the rear areas are full of commissars and missionaries and that the constant rotation through dull guard duties is just a grind. Days in garrison are a chore, to be ticked off one at a time on the calendar.
Nobody in Company C’s point squad is thinking of calendars right now, up front, the point man carries his Kantreal Mk VI rifle at the ready. His grip is relaxed, but his finger is on the trigger, the safety is off and the selector is switched down to automatic. Suddenly he stops and sniffs the light breeze. His non-smoker’s nose has picked up the pungent odor of the coarse local Lho-sticks smoked by the PLA fighters. He swings his rifle in the direction of the smoke and squeezes off two five round bursts, shouts “Urra!” and flops to the ground where he continues to fire at the perceived enemy.
Behind him, Sergant Yashin and the rest of the squad are also spraying the general area with automatic fire in an attempt to gain fire superiority over an enemy they haven’t yet seen. But they are in the grass somewhere and exactly where soon becomes evident. From the front right, 20 meters away in the tall grass, comes the high pitched chatter of the small caliber autoguns carried by the Devos IV PDF regiments as a counterpoint to the crack and fizz of the Kado las-rifles.
From dead ahead, a heavy stubber adds its deep rattle, hitting the last man in the point squad, who is slow to hit the dirt. He jerks and falls, screaming “I’m hit, I’m hit!” and holding his midriff. Sgt Yashin grips the squad and exerts fire discipline, laying down a curtain of fire to allow the following squad to grab the wounded man and begin dragging him toward the rear, passed to each successive man until he reaches the platoon medic. Kommissar Tora hasn’t found anyone wanting yet, but no one wants to be the first to relinquish ground to the enemy, as this would surely result in vyshka (from vysshaya mera nakazanija – extreme penalty).
The other three squads in Platoon three’s line are now in contact. Two minutes into the contact and the platoon has taken four casualties. Comrade Lejtenant Chetek’s vox operator is relaying the contact report to Comrade Major Gogebic. Fifty meters to the rear of Sgt Yashin’s squad, Major Gogebic estimates the situation, the volume of fire and the presence of the heavy stubber(s) mean at least a platoon, possibly a company. Most likely in bunkers with mortar support being dialed in now. He’ll develop the contact, lay on the artillery and see if the enemy ‘hold or fold’. This process takes only a second or two. His other platoon leaders are moving up, one right flanking with the last, that of Comrade Starshiy lejtenant (senior lieutenant) Chewmegowski as his company reserve, immediately behind his own position.
However enemy fire is picking up as well, the suspected mortars are beginning to bracket Lejtenant Chetek’s platoon. Major Gogebic wants them blasted out of their holes. Embedded into Major Gogebic’s command section is Lieutenant Weber of the Armageddon 835th (Steel Legion) Artillery Battery. Weber is a Forward Observation Officer (FOO). Eight Kloms behind 540th are four troops of six enclosed Basilisks, waiting for a call like this. Lt Weber has been walking with Company C for three months now, right now he’s plotting positions on his map slate and checking through the pre planned locations for fire missions that he planned last night in anticipation of today’s route of march. One of these locations, a spot height of 320meters above sea level, approximately 800meters ahead, is referred to by the glorious codename of BC202.
Using the authorized vox net, as prescribed in DM regulations, the fire mission is sent. Eight kloms behind, the men in the Fire Direction Centre spring into action. “Fire Mission.” Crackles out of vox speakers at each gun position. Men who had been warming themselves around braziers (who do not find this weather quite as warm as the Valhallans) breathe life into cold fingers and get to work. In the Fire Direction Center (a large tented area backing onto two Command Post Chimera), Technical Assistants Indirect are punching numbers into artillery cogitators and tracing shapes on acetate sheets overlaying the mapboards. They take the planned target, BC202 and apply the corrections supplied by Lt Weber and calculate the data that is needed to adjust fire onto the new target. Whilst they are doing that Signalers Artillery relay instructions from the Forward Observation Officer through the Command Post Officer and from the Command Post Officer out to the guns. He completes a cursory check of the data that the Technical Assistants Indirect had done (in duplicate, both for quality checking and redundancy purposes) the plot on the mapboard and sends the data to the guns.
Autogun rounds are mowing down the grass all around Company C’s position. Lejtenant Chetek commits his special weapon squad to the fire fight. The six men carry three flame throwers between them and can throw incandescing promethium out nearly 18meters with a following wind. If nothing else, setting the grass alight around the enemy position might reveal the bunkers. The men begin their long crawl forward under fire.
Today, No2 gun is being used as the ‘base gun’; the duty is rotated through each gun to even out the wear on each piece. The Fire Direction Centre gives out the bearing and elevation, corrected for the wind and No2 gun loads one round. The first round will be smoke to allow the FOO to then direct the subsequent rounds off of the fall of shot. No2, aiming off the red and white aiming rods ten meters in front of the gun, report ready and are given the order to fire.
Smoke belches and the basilisk rocks slightly as the shell is launched eight kloms towards Company C. A new smoke round is slammed into the breach, ready for the next adjustment. The report of shot is given by the Fire Direction Centre to the FOO who then waits the impact. Major Gogebic and Lt Weber are watching as round bursts, 100m in the air, right above the line of the bunker position, but about 200m to the right. As the adjustments are being made, the steady crump of the enemies mortars beings in earnest as they commence their own bombardment of Lejtenant Chetek’s platoon. “Left 200, repeat.” Sends Lt Weber.
The other gun crews of the battery are following the instructions that No2 gun is carrying out. Twenty three other earthshakers are tracking the movements of the No2 gun. Each troop of six guns, unless instructed otherwise, fires a roughly rectangular sheaf approximately 200meters long by 100meters deep. The beaten zone of a full Battery fire mission like this is over 400meters long and 200meters deep. Each gun has three HE rounds prepared for this mission, some are fused to detonate between 100meters and 50meters above the ground, spraying thousands of steel shards onto anything below and two thirds are fused with a slight delay, so that they bury themselves into the bunkers, spraying their deadly splinters upwards and outwards.
Less than seven minutes have passed since the point man fired his first burst. The lead platoon is being hammered by the mortar fire but men are still hugging the ground and experienced NCOs like Sergant Yashin keep their squads firing and do not allow the enemy to win fire superiority. Now under fire from the enemy heavy stubbers and mortars themselves, the Company C Command Squad unleash hell. Twenty four Basilisks fire as one. Lt Weber beings to count the twenty eight seconds it will take the first set of rounds to travel the eight Kloms.
Back at the artillery positions, the gunners move with smooth and practiced rhythm. 835th (and its sister 836th Battery, the Divisional Artillery reserve) Battery is well used to technical gunnery. They practice extensively whenever they are able. The second and third rounds are loaded and fired before the first one has landed.
In the fire fight, the men of Company C are holding their own; most of them are between 50meters and 100meters from the presumed position of the bunkers. Melta and flame thrower armed men grit their teeth and wait for the assault whilst trying to be as small as possible. Everyone else is yelling, firing and hugging the ground all at the same time.
The noise as the bombardment lands blots out all else. Firing ceases as the world shakes. Lt Weber orders “Repeat” as the noise falls away, dying back down to autogun, stubber and mortar noise (although noticeably less). Still just over nine minutes from the point man’s first shots, the second batch of artillery rounds land and once again the world disappears into gouts of earth and noise so loud that it cannot be heard by those close to it.
This time the return fire from the enemy positions is desultory and seems to be pattering out. Bringing Starshiy lejtenant Chewmegowski’s platoon with him, Major Gogebic sweeps forwards, ordering bayonets to be fixed and leads the assault on the ruined bunkerline. At last the flame throwers and melta guns that the 540th carry as squad special weapons can be used. Everywhere his riflemen pick themselves up, chanting, firing and screaming obscenities.
Already the Armageddon gunners are cleaning their guns and replenishing their ready ammunition supplies for the next fire mission. Two things made the difference between victory and disaster for Company C this afternoon; the point man’s keen nose and the swift and accurate response of their artillery support.

Sunday 20 November 2011

Lord Inquisitor

If you havn't caught this already, (esp if you are 3D CGI teacher,) then check it out. Compare and contrast with the Ultramatines movie, a paid for professional film and this is done by half a dozen people in their free time:

http://www.thelordinquisitor.com/

Super.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Cheese Falcon.

http://www.ninjabread.co.uk/cheese-falcon/

This wins the internet.

Sunday 6 November 2011

ASL getting there.

The ASL's armoured bit is now all finished to the same degree. This week, I shall attempt to bring their Infantry to the same point, the individual soldiers and the Chimera.

You can, if you look carefully, descern the different LRMBT models; the newer ones have a distinct slope to their vorpanzer. The Sqn HQ is the (# 400, naturally) LRMBT at the rear, along with the 2iC's Executioner.

So there are two troops of LRMBT (incl an executioner and an anhilator, one in each troop) and two 'stompa hunter' troops; armoured sentinals with LC, although each of these troops has one 'executioner' model with a Plasma Cannon.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Wild Wind Widers of Siam Hain Redeux



So now I've travelled sarf to the land of Invicta and foolishly challenged John (ie of JTS) on his home ground. Which turns out to be a promethium plant (Isle of Grain ?)

I have my glass hammer all ready to annihalate his Vraks renegades who are entrenched at the other end of the pipework. It all started well. The super fast and hyper manoevurable Jet Bike posse swept down the left flank and began chomping bites out of the opposition.

But I stopped. I should have remembered the lesson; move in 12", shoot and then jet boost away 12" in your own assault phase. John even mentioned Shaun's tau doing that very thing and I still didn't cotton on ! So I sat about 8" away for three turns and was moving the falcon and serpent up behind me. Eventually, despite gouging huge chunks out of the Vraksians, the jetbikeposse ended up so small that even the Farseer had had enough and they scoooted off for a rest somewhere less shooty.

It turns out that even a fousand points, an IG army can soak up damage (yes, they do die instead of making their saves, but there's still more of them than you've got ammunition....)

John then promptly shot down the falcon and serpent, exploding one and crashing the other into the 'moat' from whence the DA's would have been lucky to escape.
I should pay more attention or just be more careful next time: Just because they didn't move very far; didn't mean that they couldn't assault me, which they did.


My thanks to John and Val for their horse brutality.

Sunday 30 October 2011

Wild Wind Widers of Siam Hain



So, I travelled to the wintery far north to fight Karitas. Logan Wing is an impressive looking build. He has four ickle posses of wulfgardtermies, two dakka preds and a pair of MM/HF land speeders in reserve. And a Dreadnuffink. Which really was untouchable, as you shall see....

I'm arrayed with a bunch of jet bikes and serpents and one falcon. All brittle percussive instruments vs werewolves in terminator armour. Yikes, I thought and said a silent hail mary to Fitz, the patron saint of Siam Hain. OK, so it didn't go too badly; the runepriest and his posse went down to massed SC fire from the jetbike and Vyper armarda after three rounds. The Falcon popped one pred the first turn and kept the pressure on until it went to the second speeder mid game. Two WL marched resolutely into HTH with Logan and his posse and were smashed in two rounds. (WTF ?!?! WL creamed in HTH ? Yep, I saw it with my own eyes. And wept silent internal tears).

Serpents were shot down all over the place, the Falcon was shot down and the Fire Dragons duely de-bussed. They shot Logan's posse. The guys from the Falcon toasted the Rune Preist on the other side of the table. My Autharauch Deep Struck behind the remaining Pred and imobilisied it for a round. He should have stayed there and should have just kept shooting the rear armour of the Pred. But I could have him assault the stunned dred. So I did. Autharchs cannot hit dreads in HTH (at least in that build) and the dread needed a six to touch the Autarch, so with Karitas' rolling he was fairly safe. Even surrounded by another posse of five wulfgardtermies he was chopping his way through them whilst fending off the dread as well (by the end of the game the FD were on their way across to help him).

Logan set off on a one man march into my deployment zone; he took all of my remaining firepower (including TL brightlances to the face for two complete turns) and was only stopped by last remaining scoring unit de-bussing and bladestorming him. Hurrah !

So I elected to roll for the end of the game, having had good results all day. And the game ended there and then with a serpent contesting the SW obj but with my remaining jetbikes still 12" away from my home obj.

So I lost. But my glass hammer had chomped through the Logan Wing army quite nicely. With the dragons about to rescue the Autarch and the Farseer about to chuck his singing spear at the dread, I reckon seven turns could have seen me forcing the last wuldgarfmerties off of his obj as well.

There'll be a next time Logan....

My thanks to Karitas for a great day. I hope he manages to put his pictures up at some point. I have given up on trying to kidnap him as a paint slave; Mrs K also paints so house arrest should do just fine....

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Thunderers

I have had a go at another one of the Dneipr Thunderers.



These take a little more cuttin'n'shuttin' than the mid turret chimera. And I am going to have to arse about cutting slivers of plasticard to cover the gaps etc.



But despite the hit and miss nature of my conversions, I quite enjoy these as they edge towards finished.



I'm putting the Revell ATAT's together more or less out of the box for the iggies. For the Reretics and Hennigades, I considering a unit of those Star Wars walking tanks (the ugly ones) with some more 40k-ification.

Monday 24 October 2011

Echoes in the warp

I don't know if you picked this up first hand. I've picked it up from Pathfinder. It has the pathos and sadness of Dolly Parton's "I will always love you". Perhaps.

http://thefrontlinegamer.blogspot.com/2011/09/is-imperium-metaphor-for-games-workshop.html

If you havn't read it, give it a go.

Sunday 23 October 2011

GOT vehicles

I though you might like to see a little more of the Annocenti's vehicles:



The Hunchback comes with a couple of weapon choices and two turrets to mount them on. So you could gun up a 40K one and put the proper (scale correct) weapons on the other turret for a different game system.



You could leave the hatches off the Zebu for a sleeker look. The cow catcher bull bar thingy on the front is a separate peice as well. Additionally, the model comes with pairs of extra plates for either armouring the window or just adding detail.



The wheels fit well. I stuck them on and left the models on their backs over night, and they are all square and seem more robust than resin could be. 40K figs for scale here. These models, whilst not the cheapest, are well detailed - for instance the tyre pattern on the Hunchback's wheels is crisp and realistic; they look like off road tyres where Space Marine bikes appear to have tractor tyres.



Looking forward to getting some paint on these, just to see what they look like. The Zebu will get an arbities paint job and the Hunchback will have a more generic green colourscheme, to enable it be flexed between armies.

Friday 21 October 2011

Busy me

I've been attacking the plastic crack mountain. Partly as an attempt to actually get my DKK onto the table top but mostly as an exercise in self discipline and so on. This is two days work, not including the little ATAT, which I did about a fortnight ago.



The whiteish looking thingies are GOT vehicles from annocenti's workshop. That's a Zebu cruiser (a ride for the Adeptus Arbities [a repressor may follow one day])the blue things on top are hatches for the passengers in the rear seats (it's a coupe). The six wheeled AFV is a Hunchback. This may end up as a Bloodcoat vehicle. But it might not.




Hopefully this will show a Cadian next to the foot of the larger Revell ATAT, just to give you a sense of the scale of these things. Now, I think that it is about right for a Stormlord stand in. But I've a feeling that if I sling a warhound mega bolter under the head, the weight will make the damned thing fall over. Another thing is where to keep it....

Wednesday 19 October 2011

No Dougal,



These ones are very small. Those ones are far away.

Actually, Fr Ted aside, this picture makes the patio look reallllly big.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Chimera MK whatever

This is my first go at the new Chimera kit. Again, no track guards. Why on earth did they include a bull dozer blade instead of a set of track guards ? I want track guards on every one I build and a 'dozer blade on combat engineer specific models (ie about 1 in 30). Am I really alone in this ?



Nice to see that despite the plethora of new options, the flash suppresor for the multi laser is still enormously oversized. And the HB option has only one HB; unless it's being built for fluftastic reasons, it's possibly completely redundant.

Having said all of that, excepting the skull and banner on the side, I like the kit and it goes together easily enough. Of course, the old kit went together as easily anyway. And the back door opened.

Monday 17 October 2011

Star Wars !

I thought that the Brigade HQ could do with a ride. It's actually only chimera sized; it's just a bit taller. With some comms kit stuff stuck to the back it should be OK. And I'm going to try for a Vostroyan colour scheme, using the big 'V skull' transfers from the baneblade sheet.



I was looking for the Revel kit as described here: http://devos4.blogspot.com/2010/04/star-wars-counts-as-superheavy.html But of course, with no new (or re-release) star wars filums out for a few years now, the kit is OOP. The Revel kit is bigger and will make a lovely troop transport.



You might not be able to make them out, but the SW blasters have been replaced by IG autocannons.

Saturday 10 September 2011

ASL reinforcements



These will be 421, 422 and 423.



They are the 'new' LR kit, modified and with bits from my garage to resemble the existing panzers of 4 Sqn, which are the 'old' (Pheaton pattern ?)kit.



Hopefully when they are sprayed up, the differences will diminish yet further. It's not that I don't like the new kit (It's allowed me to create an anhilator, just to please Admiral Drax), but I wanted a degree of uniformity across the unit.



When they are done, I'll stick up some comparison shots, hopefully the differences will hardly show. Fingers crossed.

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Sticking my head above the parapet



The idea of putting out a Codex in WD has a certain appeal. However it has its drawbacks as well. I bought the WD with the first part of the SoB Codex in it. It is not as robust as a proper codex and will not last as long, even if I resist the urge to rip the pages out. Also it appears to only be six or eight pages (can't be bothered to get up and look, sorry) which means that the whole thing will be less than twenty pages (?) So it would seem unreasonable to expect the sophisication one would ususally associate with a 40K codex.

I never wanted a SoB army. They always seemed a little to up their own arses for me. I imagined Eisenhorn or Ravenor type bands, supported by ISTs. Perhaps even Jaq Draco, although I may be going back a bit too far...

Anyway, the point was that, equipped with the Witch Hunter codex, you could build a proper Ordo Hereticus warband or an army of power armoured breasts. Now, I havn't seen the second part of the WD codex, but it does look awfully slanted towards SoB, rather than being something that could elegantly allow one to field a Hereticus warband without any of Sisters of Perpetual PMT. Ho hum.

Yes I am just shooting my mouth off prematurely, but this is the interweb, after all.

Angry Birds, indeed.

Tuesday 9 August 2011

New style LRMBT vorpanzer



This is one of the new style LRMBT turrets along side one of the old ones. Both have plasticard vorpanzer. To try for homogenity across the fleet, the template for the angled sections either side of the gun is the same one I used for the old type. Which is in itself based on the profile of that part of the turret.



Hopefully with the existing turret, you get an idea of how it'll turn out. And also how different it might be. The new turret has a much more 'modern' look, IMHO. In shilouette it resembles a Merkava turret. Well, a little bit anyway.



There's three of these to do, to add another troop to the panzer squadron; I might alternate them with the Thunderers. But the thing is to try to make them look "the same but different". So each subsequent model is based on the one before but without cutting out dozens of sets of templates; for one thing, for instance, having built one Thunderer, the next one will be quicker and better built.



There. Makes a change from riots.

Saturday 6 August 2011

Thunderer WIP



Vindicator bits in a LRMBT hull. No doubt someone has done it before, but that's ok, its not like any of GWs IP is actually original in itself is it ?



There were a few fit issues and some bits and peices could have been done better. For instance where the shell winch sits on its arm, the plasticard plate obviously looks like it should be braced or supported. But I'll do this one and her sisters up to a point before going mad on detail that I might not be able to reproduce.



I'm a bit stuck with the cupola. It will have to be an iggy one for continuity's sake, but it'll need cutting down to a level to allow it to sit on the vindicator hull top. Also for the next ones I intend to cut out the louvred plate to allow the extractor fans to be recessed lower in the hull.




This should show the butchered iggy dozer blade now relegated to being the mount for the siege shield. I don't know about fitting seige shields to the next two, but more about this below.

Why Thunderers ?

Generally speaking, the turrets on LRMBT are too small for their armourments. For scale and layout, they resemble early WW2 russian tank turrets. In the 1980s, GW obviously decided that if they put a proper scale gun in their LRMBT, then it would constantly be getting broken, which resulted in the 'normal' battle cannon having the dimensions of a howitzer or petard.

Which means that the LR Demolisher is just ridiculous. If you have the chance, hold the shell from a vinicator up against a demolisher turret. See ? I know that it's all made up and therefore doesn't matter, but still.

So the only sensible configuration for a Demolisher is for the demolisher cannon to be hull mounted. A turret mounted laser cannon, whose ammunition supply amounts to a HV cable, is a far more sensible proposition.

But FW have published rules for the Fundara and this little project will leave me with a couple of spare LRMBT turrets for the next project, so the thing you see above is what I'm working on.

The others may get a mine plow and a ditching beam/fascine; all good engineering things for combat engineer assets.

Wednesday 27 July 2011

I'm still here

Hello,

It's been a bit quiet here on Devos IV. I've even tidied the garage and put everything away. Work is just not giving me any hobby time at the minute. This is not to say that the whole thing has stymied as I'm still getting some army components painted.

I'm also trying not to buy anything, due to spending money getting stuff painted. But I have bought some of KR Multicase's aloominum cases to keep my precious DKK safe from being sat on or anything like that.

And I've sprayed six of the built Chimera up as ASL, so I'll be replacing those...

I have a scheme for some drop troops - Warlord Wehrmacht with Elysian weapons. And a penal unit of Empire hand gunners with Las rifles and Cadian heads; I'm hoping that these will just look 'underequipped' rather than 'ridiculous'.

And I like the faux Cadians with wargames factory heads so much I've some legs from 'let the dice decide' and will throw a few more together.

Hope you're all enjoying the summer.

Thursday 7 July 2011

I've got my DKK back.



It's one of PVP's pictures. On Tuesday I just popped down to Cardiff on my way home and picked them up.

Earlier this evening, I had the opportunity to get them out and have a look at them. There was only one casualty, a flammer soldat who has already been glued back to health.

I whole heartedly recommend PVP if you either lack the time to paint your own army or are rubbish at painting (guilty on both counts).

So I now have two platoons of DKK, one of DKK grenadiers and assorted hangers-on. Looking forward now to seeing them in action.

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Er, dunno where these'll fit in.



I got some legs from 'let the dice decide' and the rest are leftovers from other projects



These guys look like a decent kill team, all fitted out with laser range finders and lamps for night fighting. P'haps.



So the bits built two command squads (good for Apoc, where I'll be scattering them like confetti). I'm currently writing them up as the Margrav Hakisyke's household guard, just so I squeeze them into my army somewhere. I'm thinking black with very dark fatigues, sort of like the Death Star fellas.

For anyone who doesn't know - those are the heads for the Wargames Factory greatcoat stormtroopers. A small amount of butchery to get them to sit where I wanted, but then, they'll pass once they are painted.

Friday 10 June 2011

Zombies in Liecester !

Three cheers for the FOI !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-13713798
So the UK is unprepared for a Zombie attack. Who knew ? I'm off to Italy (via Norwich). I'll keep an eye out for anti zombie measures.

Sunday 5 June 2011

Valhalla ahoy !



The mass of bodies in the centre of the picture is a large part of the Kado 540th Infantry Regt, orginally the Valhallan 540th, but there are now possibly more Kado bodies than Valhallan ones, so that's the way it is.

Anyway, I've just assembled the last fifteen of them. So when they are all based and painted, I'll have to get them all out and divide them up into squads/platoons to see what the final orbat is going to look like. I do like the three large platoons. I can do four smaller ones, but meh. I'll blob them up with commissars and they can walk down the centre behind the ASL's wall of LRMBTs.

Oh oh ooo ! Admiral Drax has shown me a sneak peak of his LCI project* It looks really good. I am so tempted to put one of his pictures up, but that would be stealing his funda, so you'll have to keep an eye out.

Friday 3 June 2011

Pirate Viking Painting: Death Korps sir! Thousands of 'em!

Pirate Viking Painting: Death Korps sir! Thousands of 'em!: "A very short update today as there is only one picture that matters, this one! This is the first time I have attempted to shoot such a la..."

Gulp. There's loads of 'em. I'll leave the banner picture up as the header for a few days. Jus' to gawk at.

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Pirate Viking Painting: We'll keep the khaki flag flying here...


Pirate Viking Painting: We'll keep the khaki flag flying here...: "Well, this is it! The last Death Korps! I decided to leave the banners for last as a treat so here they are: This fellow is the Command H..."

So, They are almost ready. Quake in fear, rebellious citizens of Devos IV....

Monday 30 May 2011

Mixed bag



The awful weather, lack of anything we both want to see at the kino, Mrs Zzzzzz's need to perfect and practice her presentation has meant I had a pretty good w/e for painting.

19 Kasarkin shaped Stormies*, 12 VASA Suppressors (Arbities), ten meltavets and eight of my fake Valhallans (similar to those in the photo - WF greatcoat bodies, Pig Iron winter heads and Cadian arms).

Also sprayed the Armageddon camoflage colours on six Chimera. Decals next. Tomorrow night, if Mrs Zzzzzz goes swimming.

*I'm saving the best cast Stormtrooper sergeant for a possible project later.

And in case I forget, if you're off to blogwars next w/e, good luck.

Sunday 22 May 2011

The Generosity of Gamers

As further proof that not only are not all gaming bloggers not cannibals, but that some of them are quite nice* - following a conversation with Karatis about foamcore buildings, without prompting, he made a gift of this:



In similarly generous spirit, Admiral Drax offered to paint something for me. So I'll be sending him something soon. And it doesn't end here, Soviet Space also left this behind:




But giving it back will be a good excuse to catch up with him again.

* Now that's us damned by faint praise.

Pirate Viking Painting: Officers and Gentlemen of the DKK

Pirate Viking Painting: Officers and Gentlemen of the DKK: "Just a quickee this time and the penultimate Death Korps update before the project is finished! This time it is the turn of the officers and..."

Sunday 15 May 2011

Operation Lockheart



The Battle.
This is it. Sort of. There was a lot going on and I’ve slept since:
The Cadian Recce unit deployed into the ruined Administratum building. Two Wolverines covered the landing field whilst the third and the Weasels covered the built up area to the south. A detachment of Preatorians arrived immediately to the west of their position. The Cadians remained wary of the Preatorians, who had been conspicuously absent during the last year as the Cadians fought their guerrilla action.
Their reasons were well founded. The Preatorians did not make contact with the Cadians, waiting in cover in the adjacent city block until the first PLA presence made itself felt, immediately to the East.
A Platoon of Tigers arrived, creeping along in search of the Cadians who had spent the last week evading them. As the hidden Cadians, including their snipers, engaged the Tigers, dissuading them from advancing any further, the Preatorian’s armour arrived. Meadusa siege guns and MBTs rolled into place and the Preatorian infantry began to fire and manoeuvre towards the ruined Adminstratum.
Turn Two
17 Div’s mobile reserve, C Coy of the Cadian 2/24, trained in the light role, landed en masse in a huge Valkyre lift in the square that used to be home to a weekly market and holy day morality plays. The ankle deep blanket of rubble and rubbish was hard on the infantrymen, but the open space was good for the Valkyre pilots, who landed everyone without incident, the vast clouds of dust thrown up keeping the airframes from serious AA fire.




A Tigers ML sentinel opened fire on a Wolverine. Which was a mistake, the Wolverine gunned its engines and hurtled forward, to crush the walker. The sentinel and its two HF fellows were still in action, all four vehicles thrashing about in the space between a tower and an empty basilica. The Preatorian Armour opened up on the weasels, destroying two of them as their infantry swept into attack. A Wolverine shot at one of the meadusae, knocking it out.
Elsewhere, the Tigers hesitated and the QRF shut their eyes and held hands over mouths and noses as 50 TLW dusted off, leaving them controlling a lot of ground with precious little cover.
Turn Three
Lead elements of the PLAs 79th Tank Battalion rolled into town; of the Cadian 2/24th had control of Freeman’s Square itself only moments before, they were joined by an ominous and threatening shape as a Baneblade entered the NW corner of the square with its MBT escort.
The 79th Tank Bn chewed its way through the Cadian relief force as the rouge Cadian guardsman Bomar jumped off the bell tower where he had been hiding and took on the Tiger’s Sgt Harphur and his remaining vets in an epic brawl that ended with Guardsman Bomar victorius. A similarly epic punch up went on in the shadow of Zarathusa’s tracks between a Preatorian Grenadier and an Arcomet Psyker, each of them the last of their respective units.
Epidemus, the Tallyman of Nurgle, arrived to anchor the Tiger’s right flank and two other Major Deamons of Nurgle arrived before Zarathusa and its escort of Arcomet Armour and promptly laid into them, chomping into the structure points available.
Turn Four and Five
Mechanised units from the Cadian 1/24 began to arrive. Griffin mortar carriages opened fire on PLA units threatening the square. One PLA LRMBT lost its main armament to an assaulting lone Cadian sentinel. PLA tank fire continued to keep the Cadians heads down. A lone Marauder Destroyer from the PLA’s air brigade hurtled over the scene firing its autocannons and loosing off a barrage of Hellstrike missiles at Cadian targets, scoring hits on many of its mechanised assets. Desparate meltagun fire and a curtain of flak from a damaged hydra took down the Marauder.
Arcomet units, scrambled as the Cadian QRF left to succour the 144th, began to arrive. Their elite PBS, veterans of many fights against Orks, found themselves in desperate HTH with Preatorian Grenadiers.
Behind the Tigers, the Arcomet Stormsword arrived, to counterpoint the arrival of the Cadian’s Lucius Pattern Baneblade ‘Zarathusa’ in the SE corner, threatening the Preatorians. As the Preatorians charged the Cadian’s position, the platoon were countercharged by a single special weapon squad, who held them up for an unfeasibly long time without going down.
At this point things started getting much worse for the Liberation Force, as deamons of Nurgle appeared. Nurglings and Plaguebearers assaulted the remains of the Cadian 144th. Melta teams from the Cadian 2/24th worked their way through the 79th Tank Bn’s tanks whilst their veterans faced off against the Tiger’s Colonel Strapon and his supporting Ogryn. The Tiger’s redoubtable CO only took down only two vets, but took almost all of the Cadian’s fire power for two or three turns before eventually going down.
The Deamons finally took out the Zarathusa, the ensuing explosion clearing a good two square feet of space in that corner of the board, the only survivor in the area was one of the Major Deamons. Unfortunately for ‘it’, the explosion had removed the building between it and a squadron of ASL Tank Hunter Sentinels and promptly took a Las Cannon to the face, sending it back to the warp.
The Cadian 1/24 arrived and drove into the fray, committing everything they had to clearing the Plaguebearers off the 144th’s scanner with its vital data.
Epliogue
Technically, the objective was still being contested at the end of the game. In narrative terms, the Cadian 144th lost all but three of its men, Major Budget (OC of the 144th) lasting on his own until the very turn that the deamons were banished.
So the Imperium has possession of the scanner, but there is every chance that the cogitators are full of plaguebearer slime. We’ll have to wait a while to find out.
My thanks to the participants, Admiral Drax and Kartias. Especial thanks to Soviet Space, who’s obvious experience of Apoc and keeping things running along at a good pace possibly saved us from a three day game.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Operation Lockheart



The Battle.
This is it. Sort of. There was a lot going on and I’ve slept since:
The Cadian Recce unit deployed into the ruined Administratum building. Two Wolverines covered the landing field whilst the third and the Weasels covered the built up area to the south. A detachment of Preatorians arrived immediately to the west of their position. The Cadians remained wary of the Preatorians, who had been conspicuously absent during the last year as the Cadians fought their guerrilla action.
Their reasons were well founded. The Preatorians did not make contact with the Cadians, waiting in cover in the adjacent city block until the first PLA presence made itself felt, immediately to the East.
A Platoon of Tigers arrived, creeping along in search of the Cadians who had spent the last week evading them. As the hidden Cadians, including their snipers, engaged the Tigers, dissuading them from advancing any further, the Preatorian’s armour arrived. Meadusa siege guns and MBTs rolled into place and the Preatorian infantry began to fire and manoeuvre towards the ruined Adminstratum.
Turn Two
17 Div’s mobile reserve, C Coy of the Cadian 2/24, trained in the light role, landed en masse in a huge Valkyre lift in the square that used to be home to a weekly market and holy day morality plays. The ankle deep blanket of rubble and rubbish was hard on the infantrymen, but the open space was good for the Valkyre pilots, who landed everyone without incident, the vast clouds of dust thrown up keeping the airframes from serious AA fire.




A Tigers ML sentinel opened fire on a Wolverine. Which was a mistake, the Wolverine gunned its engines and hurtled forward, to crush the walker. The sentinel and its two HF fellows were still in action, all four vehicles thrashing about in the space between a tower and an empty basilica. The Preatorian Armour opened up on the weasels, destroying two of them as their infantry swept into attack. A Wolverine shot at one of the meadusae, knocking it out.
Elsewhere, the Tigers hesitated and the QRF shut their eyes and held hands over mouths and noses as 50 TLW dusted off, leaving them controlling a lot of ground with precious little cover.
Turn Three
Lead elements of the PLAs 79th Tank Battalion rolled into town; of the Cadian 2/24th had control of Freeman’s Square itself only moments before, they were joined by an ominous and threatening shape as a Baneblade entered the NW corner of the square with its MBT escort.
The 79th Tank Bn chewed its way through the Cadian relief force as the rouge Cadian guardsman Bomar jumped off the bell tower where he had been hiding and took on the Tiger’s Sgt Harphur and his remaining vets in an epic brawl that ended with Guardsman Bomar victorius. A similarly epic punch up went on in the shadow of Zarathusa’s tracks between a Preatorian Grenadier and an Arcomet Psyker, each of them the last of their respective units.
Epidemus, the Tallyman of Nurgle, arrived to anchor the Tiger’s right flank and two other Major Deamons of Nurgle arrived before Zarathusa and its escort of Arcomet Armour and promptly laid into them, chomping into the structure points available.
Turn Four and Five
Mechanised units from the Cadian 1/24 began to arrive. Griffin mortar carriages opened fire on PLA units threatening the square. One PLA LRMBT lost its main armament to an assaulting lone Cadian sentinel. PLA tank fire continued to keep the Cadians heads down. A lone Marauder Destroyer from the PLA’s air brigade hurtled over the scene firing its autocannons and loosing off a barrage of Hellstrike missiles at Cadian targets, scoring hits on many of its mechanised assets. Desparate meltagun fire and a curtain of flak from a damaged hydra took down the Marauder.
Arcomet units, scrambled as the Cadian QRF left to succour the 144th, began to arrive. Their elite PBS, veterans of many fights against Orks, found themselves in desperate HTH with Preatorian Grenadiers.
Behind the Tigers, the Arcomet Stormsword arrived, to counterpoint the arrival of the Cadian’s Lucius Pattern Baneblade ‘Zarathusa’ in the SE corner, threatening the Preatorians. As the Preatorians charged the Cadian’s position, the platoon were countercharged by a single special weapon squad, who held them up for an unfeasibly long time without going down.
At this point things started getting much worse for the Liberation Force, as deamons of Nurgle appeared. Nurglings and Plaguebearers assaulted the remains of the Cadian 144th. Melta teams from the Cadian 2/24th worked their way through the 79th Tank Bn’s tanks whilst their veterans faced off against the Tiger’s Colonel Strapon and his supporting Ogryn. The Tiger’s redoubtable CO only took down only two vets, but took almost all of the Cadian’s fire power for two or three turns before eventually going down.
The Deamons finally took out the Zarathusa, the ensuing explosion clearing a good two square feet of space in that corner of the board, the only survivor in the area was one of the Major Deamons. Unfortunately for ‘it’, the explosion had removed the building between it and a squadron of ASL Tank Hunter Sentinels and promptly took a Las Cannon to the face, sending it back to the warp.
The Cadian 1/24 arrived and drove into the fray, committing everything they had to clearing the Plaguebearers off the 144th’s scanner with its vital data.
Epliogue
Technically, the objective was still being contested at the end of the game. In narrative terms, the Cadian 144th lost all but three of its men, Major Budget (OC of the 144th) lasting on his own until the very turn that the deamons were banished.
So the Imperium has possession of the scanner, but there is every chance that the cogitators are full of plaguebearer slime. We’ll have to wait a while to find out.
My thanks to the participants, Admiral Drax and Kartias. Especial thanks to Soviet Space, who’s obvious experience of Apoc and keeping things running along at a good pace possibly saved us from a three day game.

Can you tell what it is yet ?



A little better. The tamiya spray paint is the right colour, but the tin, didn't cover the vehicles. More base colour, methinks.



Quite delightfully, Karitas fixed my airbrush. By it together and turning it on. (why didn't that work for me ?) So these babies are next for glory. Especially as their passengers could be back at the end of the month.

Sunday 8 May 2011

Combat Patrol



The forces of the Empire have landed at Randstad, a port on the western seaboard of Benq. The port and main road inland are overlooked by a series of hills known locally as the Nolag Hieghts. The area contains many prepared positions and supply caches for the PDF set in case of planetary invasion.

The 72AG (ie 17 Div, as that is all there is) sends F Coy Cadian 2/24 to agressively patrol the Hieghts, to ensure that any future advance won't be overlooked by hostile eyes. Or Artillery, for that matter. A detachment of the elite Arcomet 877th rotates into 901 Bde's QRF. Col Stirling, being the kind of man he is, sends his Recce Platoon out to keep an eye on the Cadians and give his QRF as much advance warning as possible.



What you see here in various views is the table with no bodies on it. You can see the trench system, Arty Posn(s) and the anti vehcile barriers. The whole ridge line looks like this, some eight Kloms.

The PDF's dickers see the Cadians advancing into the hills and report this to their leaders. The PLA are worried that the Imperium is going to find the command post with the encrypted cogitators and aim to cut the Cadians off in a pincer movement. Elements of 13th Mech ('Tigers') and 99th Foot ('Bloodcoats') set off.



So there was a 400 point Combat Patrol game with the Cadians (Admiral Drax), Arcomet (Karitas), Tigers (Zzzzz) and Bloodcoats (Soviet Space). The Objective, such as it was, is the abandoned PLA Command Post AFV in the centre of the board. The Cadians started in the trench line. An Arcomet sniper team hid itself in one of the snadbagged emplacements. The Tigers attacked the Cadian position from the Arty Posn and the Bloodcoats established their gunline between the objective and the anti vehicle barriers.

Lt Woolpack, Commanding No 3 Platoon, quickly assessed the situation and decided to dislodge the heretics from the hill top. He bravely defended the trench as he sent his brave boys over the top to march down hill, bayonets fixed and power cells ejected, towards the waiting bloodcoat heavy stubber and mortar defended Bloodcoats.

No 3 Platoon's own supporting mortars were soon in action, during the ensuing firefight, Cadian sergeants handed out buckshee power packs and the Bloodcoats got the worst of it. There wasn't really much of a let up for the Bloodcoats when a squad of Tigers "hut, hut, hut'd" their way into the HW dugout and saw off all of the Cadian HW teams, only to then go down in long drawn out melee with Lt Woolpack's command team.

The Arcomet snipers had another Tiger squad in their sights. They had already called for back up and could have let the squad go straight past, but the men of Arcomet are made from sterner stuff and three guys with sniper rifles elected to take on ten Tigers at well within charge range. Fortunately for the Tigers, these men of Arcomet had been hitting the hard stuff all morning and only got one of them. Unfortunately for the Tiger squad, they were quickly flanked by one of F Coy's sentinals, which promptly began to toast the Tigers.

The Tigers veteran Sergeant Harphur Scrambled to the top of one of the Arty emplacements and, firing a heavy bolter from the hip, imobilised the sentinal. Everything was still hanging in the balance, the Bloodcoats Coy Cmd squad was still in action, although their Plt Cmd Sqd was still pinned following and earlier mortar barrage.

The Arcomet QRF arrived, Valkyre screaming over the hill top at less than ten meters. A slavo of rockets rippled into the heretics. Incredibly, Harphur jumped off the high point he was on and into cover. A squad of Arcomet Drop troops engaged the Tiger cmd sqd holding the Arty Posn. Another squad of Arcoment Stormies landed next to the Command Post vehicle.

A few minutes later, the hilltop belonged to the Imperium.

Huge thanks to the guys for turning up. Esp Sov for keeping us chipping along and not getting bogged down. More later. There was another battle after this, a consequence of the action on the Hieghts.