Wednesday Chimera Building.

Since I took off work Wednesday, I decided to be productive. I made the decision to assemble some of my vast array of models. Today I will be putting together 4 Chimeras with magnetized hull weapons, in 7 easy steps.

Step 1: Obtain and arrange your supplies.

Step 2: Obtain some rare earth magnets, and a magnetic strip (not a strong magnet)


Step 3: Glue the magnetic strip to the hole where you are putting a weapon.


Step 4: Glue a rare earth magnet to the backs of the weapons that you want to be able to change out.

Step 5: After the glue has dried, place the pieces in close proximity to allow the magnets to attract each other!


Step 6: Assemble the rest of your Chimeras.


Step 7: The aftermath!




-Mike

The Iyanden Project

It has been a while since I did an Iyanden update. I have most, if not all, of the models I will ever need for my Eldar. I recently took them to two tournaments and did quite well. (Winning one at 3-0, going 3-0-1 at the other)
I did not place highly in the second tournament (bottom 50%) due to my low painting scores. I tried to put more time aside to actually paint my models, I primed them using an airbrush and vallejo(sp?) Lemon Yellow, a VERY bright yellow. I then hit them with Ogryn Flesh, a GW Wash to tone it down a bit. This ended up looking, well, awful.

I have a few more tournaments coming up in the next 2 months. I decided that I needed to re-do the color scheme completely. I started on my Fire Prisms first.

First I hit them with a black primer (To cover up my past failure)


Then I threw on some aptly named Iyanden Darksun.

After that, I patterned on some Fortress Grey. Both of these colors are GW foundation paints and had plenty of pigment in them to cover my bright, yellow, shame. Next I will work on base-coating the Top Turrets. More to come.

-Mike

The Hydra.

The best 40k novel I have read in a long time is Dan Abnett's Legion.
If you have not read this novel, it is about the Alpha Legion; who, prior to this book, have had very little fluff or story written about them.

If you have read this novel, talk about inspiring!

Long story short, I am creating a fluff based, Alpha Legion army. My objective is not to make another pre-heresy traitor marines army. I want to keep the Alpha Legion closer to the fluff and story outlined in Legion.

SPOILER ALERT.

Alpha Legion that are still 'loyal' to the Emperor but are still seen as 'traitors'. This will have a choice of my unit selection. Ergo, I will be using a modified codex.
My first choice is what Codex do I use to represent a 'loyalist' Alpha Legion in the 41st Millennium?

Space Wolves? - The newest and one of the most popular, but not suited to Alpha Legion.
Dark Angels? - Possibly, but too much emphasis on Termies, Bikes, and Speeders.
Blood Angels? - I already have 12000 points of Angels; So, no.
Space Marines? -Certainly the best choice. A huge array of options. Too easy.
Chaos Space Marines? - Chaos Space Marines Army List? Bingo.

The Alpha Legion are sneaky and subtle. When they attack, they follow the principles of the Hydra; Attacking from multiple directions at once. I want to emulate this on the battlefield as well, but keep with the faux-traitor feel of the fluff. I will augment Codex: Chaos Space Marines as follows.

No marks of Tzeentch, Nurgle, Khorne, or Slaanesh. No Icons of those either. Nothing with a Chaos-y feel.

HQ
Abaddon - NO.
Fabius Bile - Unmarked Chaos Lord? In, but rarely used.
Huron Blackheart - In, but rarely used.
Typhus, Kharn, Ahriman, Lucius - No.
Daemon Prince - By the Emperor, No!
Chaos Lord - In.
Chaos Sorcerer - In, but will never have a Mark, so no Lash, Bolt of Change, etc...

Elites
Chosen - In.
Terminators - In, will play a big part.
Possessed - By the Emperor, No!
Chaos Dreadnought - Crazed War Machine? No.

Troops
Chaos Space Marines - In, I have no other choice!
Berzerkers, Thousand Sons, Plague Marines, Noise Marines - Nope.
Rhino - In.

Fast
Bikes - In.
Raptors - In.
Spawn - Still Undecided.

Heavy
Havocs - In.
Obliterators - No.
Predator, Vindicator, Land Raider - In.
Defiler - Daemon Engine? No Way!

Summoned Lesser Daemons/Greater Daemon - Possibly, but not as 'Daemons'.

There you have it! I will post more about modeling/list building later.

-Mike

500 Point Madness

One of my Gaming Clubs, the Inner Circle, puts on a 500 point 'tournament' every two weeks.
Catch? 500 points, using the 40k in a Flash Rules and a simplified mission.

I played 2 games last Tuesday and I brought my Eldar.
10 Guardians w/Scatter Laser, Warlock, Embolden
10 Guardians w/Scatter Laser, Warlock, Embolden
5 Striking Scorpions w/Exarch, Biting Blade, Stalker
3 Dark Reapers w/Exarch, Tempest Launcher, Crack Shot
-499

My First Opponent brought
4x 5 Space Marines in Rhinos...

Well, Game 1 went like this, use guardians or Scorps to pop a tank, Tempest Launcher the passengers. So, I did this 3 times. (once my opponent disembarked on his own accord)
At the end my opponent had an Immobilized, De-gunned Rhino, I had 2 Objectives and 7 Kill points.

My Second Opponent had a much better list.

22 Kroot
12 Fire Warriors
Devilfish
3 Stealth Suits
4 Gun Drones

My first turn saw me open up on the Kroot with the Dark Reapers, pinning them.
My Scatter lasers killed 3 Fire Warriors, but they held firm.

My opponent, Martin, Fired his Stealth suits into my scorps and killed 2. The gun drones killed 3! Guardians, who promptly became Pinned and then fled off of the Table. (even with Embolden!!)

Next turn I assaulted the Stealth Suits (who strayed too close) with my scorpions. The suits were killed to a man. I killed a bunch more Kroot, but they passed their pinning test and their break test. I killed the Gun Drones with my other Guardian Squad.

The kroot Rapid fired and killed a Scorpion, they failed their test and began the long run off of the board. (they were under half) The Devilfish rolled up and killed a Dark Reaper, the Exarch held his squad firm.

Next turn the Dark reapers finally were able to kill enough Kroot to send them packing towards the table edge. My guardians destroyed the Devilfish.

The Gun Drones that came off of the Devilfish fired and killed another Dark Reaper.
The guardians Moved to help out. The fire Warriors hoofed it towards a center objective.

The Reaper Exarch Fired, and killed all but one Fire Dragon, who broke off of the Board.

The gun drones finally killed the exarch.

The guardians shoot and kill both of the gun drones.

That was an incredibly close game, I only had one unit left at the end (spread over 2 objectives)

These short, fun games bring me to 48W 17L 19D in 5th edition.

-Mike