Relictors Space Marine Castraferrum Dreadnought #5 - Ironclad

 Hi All, this is the latest addition to the Relictors Army. I needed an Ironclad for BlogWars3, so I needed to paint this beauty that had been in the cupboard of bare plastic for over six months! What is not to like about AV13 and all that CC goodness? Plus with Vulkan Hestan, his Melta Gun and Heavy Flamer are Twin-Linked. Plus 2 Hunter Killer Missiles for some ranged Anti-Tank (and he arrives in a Drop Pod). Nice.

I have added Armoured Plates to the knees to reflect the AV13 front armour, think they were from an IG vehicle, perhaps a Manticore/Chimera, as well as a shoulder mounted shield to bulk him out a little - it was taken from a SM Champion Combat Shield. The little decorative plate protecting his 'man-bits' is from a Venerable Dreadnought kit.

 As you can see I added an armoured plate to the back to protect the rear of the engine block, again to reflect his Ironclad status.

And here is a shot of some of the growing Relictor Dreadnought Armoury, not including my two Riflemen... still have a Forgeworld MKIV Ironclad, a Relic Mortis Contemptor and a Chaplain Dread to do... always more, never finished!!

Relictors 1750pt BlogWars 3 List

So it's my turn to post the list for the forthcoming BlogWars3 held at the end of the month at Maelstrom Games, Mansfield, UK and organised by fellow blogger Alex (From the Fang). Tickets are still available, come along and join the fun.

1750 Siph Horridus’ Space Marines (Relictors) BW3 Army List

　

HQ - Vulkan Hestan, Master Crafted Relic Blade, TL HF

TROOP - Tactical Squad (10), TL Flamer / TL Multi-Melta, Serg – Combi Melta, Rhino

TROOP - Tactical Squad (10), TL Flamer / TL Multi-Melta

TROOP - Sniper Scouts, Hvy Bolter Hellfire Rounds

ELITE - Ironclad Dreadnought, Seismic Hammer w/ TL Melta Gun, DCCW w/ TL HF, 2 x Hunter Killer Missiles, Drop Pod

ELITE - Dreadnought, 2 x TL Autocannon

ELITE - Terminator Assault Squad, 3 Master Crafted Thunderhammer / Storm Shield, 2 Lightning Claws, 2 x TL LC Landraider Dedicated Transport, TL Multi Melta

FA - Landspeeder, 1 x TL HF, TL MM

FA - Attack Bike Squad (2), 2 x TL Multi Melta

FA - Attack Bike, TL Multi Melta

HVY - Predator w/ Autocannon, Side Sponson Hvy Bolters

I hope this will give Pornstarjedi's triple Soul Grinder list something to think about if I have to battle him. Vulkan Hestan gives a great army wide upgrade of making all Multi-Melta's and Flamers, Hvy Flamers Twin Linked! Worth it's weight in plastic/finecast Ha. And ThunderHammers become Master Crafted. Nice.

I can combat squad the Tacticals giving me 5 troop choices if needed, LR for transporting Vulkan and Termies and some mobile anti-tank with Bikes and Speeder. Rifleman Dread and Predator gives some reliable anti-transport guns as well as anti-heavy troop guns. And the Ironclad is an AV13 headache dropping into your back lines on turn 1 with Drop Pod Assault. Nice (would have been better in a Lucius Pod to Assault Turn 1 but the AV13 with TL Melta Gun and TL Hvy Flamer should ensure he sticks around for turn 2).

Comments welcome, list is submitted now so no changing...

Blog Wars 3 Daemon Army List

The time has come to submit my army list- as posted previously I'm opting to go for the 'themed' daemon army- Mono-Khorne, I'm hoping that the Dice (Khorne) Gods will be smiling on me as I have made the (foolish) decision to not include Icons- this in part is due to the points cost, and the fact that Khorne I'm sure wouldn't like his army to go to war with 'Magic'

HQ
A bloodthirster with Blessing of the Blood God, and Unholy Might
Skulltaker on a Juggernaut
Herald of Khorne on a Juggernaut with Blessing of the Blood God
Elite
5 Bloodcrushers
Troops
8 man Bloodletter Squad
7 man Bloodletter Squad
5 man Bloodletter Squad
5 man Bloodletter Squad
Fast
5 Flesh Hounds, + Karanak (making the squad 6 strong)
Heavy
3 Soul Grinders, all with Plhegm upgrade

I'm not sure on the split of the army for initial waves, however I'll be making this decision prior to each game.

The army is pretty easy to pick the main 'heavy' hitters- and my initial plans, I've also included 2 smaller Bloodletter squads- the hope is that with the smaller 'footprint' I will be able to deep strike them into tighter spots without having any deep striking mishaps...  Karanak is a new addition which I haven't tried yet- I'm sure I'll end up playing GK throughout the event, thus having a squad with a 2+ save against them will be worth its weight in gold!

Blog Wars 3 Tyranid List

Blog Wars 3 is now only 2 weeks away and final lists have to be submitted tomorrow.

Picking my list was fairly easy – I took what I liked from Blog Wars 2 (the Swarmlord being unstoppable and my Tyrannofex getting a few Turn 1 de-mechs in). I then removed what hasn’t been working for me (Tervigons – I will keep a single one, but in my pairs list they just weren’t doing anything useful) and added units that I know will work (Trygons and Hormagaunts).

The list I will be taking is:

HQ

Swarmlord with two Tyrant Guard (Lash Whips)

Troops

Tervigon (Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacks)

10x Termagants

18x Hormagaunts

Elite

2x Hive Guard

2x Hive Guard

2x Hive Guard

Heavy

2x Trygons (Adrenal Glands)

Tyrannofex

It’s Nidzilla!!! It’s got some decent some good shooting and combat skills and offers flexibility for reserves. There should only be 11KPs in the list (which is not much for me) and whilst the list is few in numbers, I wouldn’t want to be stood opposite it and have to make the decision about what to aim at first (a pair of Trygons who should be in combat around T2 – or the CC bohemoth just behind them)...

 I was slightly concerned with the lower number of Troops than normal, but so long as I am careful with them and get lucky spawning more Gants, then there should be no problems with claiming objectives. Additionally, I normally run with at least 3 pieces of synapse – but with the Swarmlords increased synapse range and the fact that MCs don’t really need synapse, I should be fine.

I’ve almost changed the list up a dozen times in the past fortnight after getting numerous suggestions of improvements; taking out Swarmlord and replacing him with Doom of Malantai and a Tyrant (the Tyrant is almost as good and the Doom is great fun – but neither are really suited to the special mission rules) and also getting rid of the TFex for some Genestealers (something I tried but missed the chance of taking down mech from T1 and the Genestealers always died quickly in the test games).

I’m sure its not as competitive as it could be and I pray I don't go up against and Dark Elder players; but its a fun list to play in practice, which I think embodies some of the essence of Nidzilla and I think it will bring a smile to my opponents faces (at least at first...).

Necrons - New Army Colour Scheme

Here is a shot of my new Necron Army colour scheme, as you can see I am not a fan of the glass green rods, they look too 'Lego' for me so I thought I'd be a little different and have a blue theme. I envisage the vehicles being black with a glow blue trim (Skink Blue Dry Paint) like the destroyer above, the more important the necron, the more gold they will have - these two are bog standards so no gold, Praetorians will have more, Characters more so.

The scheme was quick enough to do, basecoat of Army Painter silver, matches Chainmail (or whatever that is called - Runefang Steel) then washed with Badab Black (Nuln Oil) and Devlan Mud (Agrax Earthshade) and then highlighted with Chainmail. Blue is mainly Ice Blue (Lothern Blue). The bases are same as my Relictors (Calthan Brown, drybrush Kommando Khaki, Bleached Bone). I've drybrushed around the blue eyes too so suggest a glow.

Comments welcome...

I've got 30 more warriors washed and basecoated and a ton of purchases made (Monolith, 2 Barges, Ark, Praetorians, Immortals, Stormlord, Spiders, Wraiths, Scarabs...)

Tyranid Display Board

I am now ready for BW3; I have a list picked and (semi) tested and all the models are bought and painted.

Somehow I was lucky enough to win best painted army at BW2 last year and as its unlikely I will place in the top half of the tournament, let alone get near the podium, I thought I’d get my ‘Nids looking as nice as possible for BW3.

Annoyingly, I am using a few of the same models from last year, so to mix things up a bit and to avoid having to trapse an army case and boxes for my MCs around, I thought I would make a display board/tray.

The board is made from pin board I picked up from Tescos for less than £4 and is textured, painted and I have added a few scenic objects. It would have been nice to add a few more pieces of scenery; a hill/cliff or digestion pool etc, but things started getting too busy to actually fit my army on the board.

 

Roll on BW3!!!

Tyranid Mycetic Spores

I don't use Mycetic Spores (the ‘Nid version of SM Drop Pods) very often; I do with Doom of Malantai and occasionally to drop dakkaFex’s in BIIIIIIIIG games (they are a bit pricy) but I have been really tempted to try and put together a full Deepstriking list recently – which obviously means lots of pods are required. Not exactly easy when GW don’t make any models for them.

The general consensus is that Mega Bloks Plasma Hatcher toys are the best/easiest proxy (you can get them for cheap on eBay); they are big enough to realistically transport a Carnifex, have a decent level of detail and can be painted pretty easily. I actually used one in Blog Wars 1:

The thing is; they look a bit dull/samey if you don’t do anything with them – but then I stumbled across a post on Claws and Fists on how to (IMO) make the best looking Mycetic Spores ever. Basically half an egg and play around with expanding foam. Genius!

 

 

I’ve bought enough eggs to make up four Mycetic Spores and these are my first two attempts.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself (although all credit goes to Claws and Fists). The next two are going to have a few “extras”....

Daemons VS Relictors- BW3 warm up battle (Picture Heavy)

With Siph returning home, a cheeky BW3 warm up battle was arranged to test potential army lists.

Siph's list was a Calgar-Dread list, including a Master of the Forge to enable him to field 5 dreadnoughts of various types. Jedi's list was a Mono-Khorne list, with Skulltaker as the Character choice.

We decided to test them on of the scenerios that we will be playing at BW3 (thanks FtF)

Daemon wave 1 included 2 Soul Grinders, a Bloodthirster and a unit of Bloodcrushers including Skulltaker and a Herald. Daemon wave 2 was 2 units of 8 Bloodletters, 1 unit of 7 Bloodletters, 5 Flesh Hounds and a another Soul Grinder.

Infiltators- Scouts into 'infirmary' building in opposite quarter to Relictors Deployment.

Turn1

• Daemons Wave 1 arrive via Deep Strike- Soul Grinders (SG) in position to fire, Bloodthirster (BT) and Bloodcrushers (BC) behind centre building
• Poor Daemon shooting phase- with no casaulties from SG firing scattering/not wounding
• Relictors open fire on SG's- causing no damage. Forget to shoot Scouts at BT
• Rifle-dread's fire on BC unit- causing 3 single wounds
• Ironclad charges BT
• Venerable dread charges SG
• Both dreadnoughts are destroyed in CC (Siph :-(  stoopid in hindsight )

Turn 2

• Flesh Hounds and 7 Bloodletters arrive- FH in front of the Relictors lines, BL in cover to claim a quarter
• Bloodthirster charges into Rifledread - destroys Dread
• 2nd SG charges Rhino and is smashed to pieces
• SG hit and has a weapon blown off and Immobilised
• Marneus and MotF charged into the SG
• 2nd SG taken out with a 'lucky' krak
• FH wiped out from Relictor bolter fire
• MotF killed by the SG in CC - squish
• Marneus wounded twice by the SG in CC - Daemon and Relictor rounds

 

Turn 3

• 2nd Rhino moved into position to claim Quarter
• 8 man Bloodletters arrives via DS- however a mishap occurs and Siph positions them into building in Daemons claimed quarter - far left of below pic
• Bloodthirster charges 2nd Rifleman- killing in CC 
• Terminators arrive via DS- homing onto Marneus' Homing Beacon
• Herald killed by marines and Scouts fire
• Marneus wounded again - in return destroyed a SG weapon
• Bloodletters charge 5 man Relictor squad- killing all,
• Dreadnought charges BL in response- killing 1 and contesting Quarter

 

Turn 4

• 3rd SG arrives via DS- in support of the other SG
• final BL squad arrives via DS, and mishaps - and is destroyed
• Bloodthirster charges final dreadnought- another dreadnought is killed due to the Khorne Greater deamon
• SG fires on the Scouts, reducing them to 2 and enabling enough room for Skulltaker to charge them in combat and wipe out next turn.
• SG killed via combined force of Calgar and Assault Terminators.

Turn5

• Skulltaker kills remaining scouts. Relictor's shoot up Skulltaker but to no avail
• Marneus moves into contest Skulltakers 'Quarter' and tempt him down. But he hides.
• Terminators charge 3rd SG in combat - however unable to penetrate...

We rolled to see whether we finished - a 3 was rolled- a turn 6!

Turn 6

• Marneus charges the SG to help destroy the SG which would enable Relictors to win their contested Quarter back and get a draw - however the Daemon engine survives (Siph - mumble mumble... damage rolls, 1 and 2's again...)
• Marine fire takes out several Bloodcrushers - reducing to 1 wound single BC. 
• Daemons claim 1 quarter, the remaining 3 are all contested

 Game end - a win for the Daemons!! 1 quarters to 0

Second Trygon Complete

What sort of ‘Nids player am I when I have only just bought and painted a second Trygon after two years??? Well to be honest I’ve never been a massive fan of Trygons/Mawlocks and whenever I have played them, they have been a giant walking/slithering target that is usually dead by Turn 2.

But...when my lone Trygon has actually reached enemy lines, its always been huge amounts of fun – and if my opponent is spending two turns of dedicating fire just to kill a single 200pts model, then it means that’s two turns where everything has advanced relatively unscathed. And that’s exactly how I’ve been playing them; as a distraction that starts on the board and runs straight down the centre screaming “look at me!” and waving its numerous scything talons.

General consensus however, is that if you actually want them to be effective and reach enemy lines, you need more than one;  to make your enemy choose what to target and hopefully force them to make mistakes. Deep Striking them will also cause your opponent to lose it – a pair pf Trygons burrowing up in your deployment zone is never a good thing (unless you’re the ‘Nid player).

Recent test games have gone pretty well – with both Trygons causing havoc when I have ran them down the board and when I have Deep Striked them.

Anyway, here’s my latest addition!

BTW – I have been testing out the new Citadel Dry paints and I love them! Drybrushing yellow onto the black carapace used to be the bane of my life and I actually hated it when I got to this stage on every model, but I have been using the yellow Dry paint and the coverage is fantastic. Unfortunately it’s more of a pastel yellow rather than the bright yellow, but only one coat is required and then it takes 10 mins to go over it all with a brighter yellow. GW – thank you!

Potential Blog Wars 3 List?

As BW3 draws nearer, its time to pencil together an army list, I have the option of either a Ultramarine force, typically revolving around a Calgar Land raider packed list, which at BW1 was fun to use. The other list would be a 4 god- Daemon list, this has a lot of various qualities about it, however when I started the Daemon army it was down to my love of the fluff behind Skulltaker- I think he is one of those cool 'he's going to kill lots' characters who, built in the right way could be a game decider. 

Therefore, my current army list will comprise of Skulltaker, hopefully on a Jug (if I can get the conversion finished!!)

I will then look to build the force with a combination of Bloodletters, a few Bloodcrushers and maybe a Bloodthirster to add to the mix. The one tactic I will be opting for is to try, (if possible) to adhere to the Khorne 'figure of 8' force.

 I do have a fair idea of the list, however I want to see how much I can get finished before uploading the final list! (I'm hoping to get alot done tonight!)

I've read that Mono-daemon lists aren't that good in 40k terms, however I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy the challenge of pleasing the Blood God... 

My aims for the day are to try and not finish last of the weeman crew, it pains me to have that burden again! I'm also hoping to be able to achieve at least 1 victory- and to avoid playing any of the Grey Knights that might be making an appearance... of course with Khorne the main point is to collect as many skulls as possible for the Blood God!!