Random battle images

I thought if I didn't at least do a random post soon I might never get back to this blog.

The first set of images are me trying out an 1850 SM (Ultramarine Tactics) with Ork Allies. I wanted to mix in a little bit of speed, but just can't bring myself to field SM bikes.

I traveled to a new store. Friendly people, but pretty sparse on terrain. I decided to set up a gunline to try and thin down the Space Wolves before I got stuck in combat.

Stupid drop pods! Why haven't any Xeno players told me how annoying they are?

The Orks managed to thin out some of the Wolves and then got run off the table.

My Centurions were running with Tigirius, who managed to score us a very needed invul save. They stayed locked in combat for about two game turns before being overrun.

Ok, so this is a whole different battle, but I wanted to show pics of the most annoying dog fight ever. This one is a pure SM list.

If you think harder about your choice of table edge, your Land Raider may not get stuck in this position.

Skyshield and that Dark Angels banner of rolling a hundred die when shooting bolters is pretty annoying.

WIP Centurion Devastators

I am really enjoying putting together this Centurion kit. My big surprise was that GW has actually included all of the weapon options for all 3 models. It is also my first foray into magnetizing, and now I see what everyone has been raving about. My Centuri-Tubbies are growing on me.

Initial assembly. I think I might leave the tabards (?) off.

I am magnetizing the heads in case I want to try and Ork them up as Meganobs.

I posted this to my Facebook group earlier after someone asked for a size comparison.

Almost finished with the initial stages of painting. 

This has nothing to do with Centurions. I am wanting to customize one of my squads so that it would stand out from my standard Tac Squads. 

TLOS and Cover in 6th

No pictures today, but hopefully tomorrow.

I was following a great article on Bell of Lost Souls today about Line of Sight blocking terrain:

Uncle Sam Wants You to Use Line of Sight Blocking Terrain!

The article is a great read and is followed by some pretty insightful comments. The RAW (Rules as Written) arguments are pretty cut and dry as to being able to make some pretty "Wanted" level shots in 6th. A few samples from the rule book:

p. 8 - "...unblocked line from its eyes to any part of the target's body (the head, torso, arms or legs)."

On the same page it is stated that you can, "spot lurking enemies through the windows of ruined buildings,catch a glimpse of a model's legs under tree branches..." Clearly, this gets down to an issue of trying to determine Rules as Intended (RAI) or just sticking with RAW.

Two Examples:

1) An enemy Riptide is 17" away from your Tac Squad, which is in cover behind the walls of a ruin (approximately 3" away from the wall). The Riptide shoots through the window of the wall (which it is approximately 14" away from) on a squad that has already been hit by maker lights.Legally this shot is possible and any cover can be ignored.

2) An enemy unit shoots at your Tac Squad across a 1' x 1' terrain piece (a graveyard with walls tall enough to block line of sight). The enemy unit draws LOS through two wrought iron gates and a bush. Legally, this shot is possible and any cover can be ignored (again, marker lights).

I am not suggesting any argument that shooting at a barely glimpsed model is illegal. I do think that once you combine the abundance of ignores cover and ignores armour we are left with models with 3+ armour saves and potential cover saves that have almost no survivability. Yes, I play Space Marines and Orks, but please understand I am not trying to be a whiny internet fan boy. I am not an overly competitive player, so my desire to "Create a Narrative" in both my list building and how I apply rules do not take full advantage of the rules available to all players. That is my choice, and I recognize my decision to not shoot through two gates and a bush is my decision alone.

I have no suggestions about how to proceed, but I point to the blog whose title sums up my 40k hobby philosophy:

How to Lose at 40k (and look good while doing it)

* Maybe one suggestion, everybody board up the windows on your ruins :)

First Bitz Bazaar

      Tomorrow my FLGS is having a Bitz Bazaar. For someone as cheap as me this is great timing for SM pre-release day. This is my first one, and I just pulled out every unit and model that never leaves the boxes. If I am lucky I'll get enough store credit to not feel bad about pre-ordering those horrible Centurions. Since this is my first time getting rid of models I'm posting a picture dump to battle my strange sentimental attachment to these pieces of plastic.

 I still have my other Vindi, and all they seem to be doing lately is ending up as craters. Maybe a Vindi + TFC + Centurion or Devestator Squad or Predator Heavy Support.

 Such a cool model. So many points. So little chance of surviving past Turn 2.

 The Dark Vengeance Tactical Squad. I've been using these guys as proxies to test plasma. I'm hoping someone just wants to pic up some DA painted to a decent quality.

I really do love these guys, but they are just too DA to run with my Space Marines. 

 I like the idea of the KFF, but my HQ slots are going to have 2 Warbosses or Warboss + Warphead.

Death Skulls Update

My primed Mega group. I'm not selling these guys, but thought I should include a project update. These guys and my bikers are on the paint table. I need to convert one of the bikers to a painboy and make the others look a little tougher since I have decided to run them as nobs.

Terminator Librarian

So, I decided that I would just keep adding to my mountain of unpainted models. I haven't felt like anyone other than a Captain leading my Space Marines made any sense, but it looks like there is not any other choice but a Librarian to have my HQ be at all useful. The rumored changes for Tigerus may make this guy unnecessary, but I had all the parts laying around.

 Unpainted Shot. 

I'm still trying to improve my work with green stuff. I didn't have a Storm Shield in my bits box, so I used a Combat Shield. If my opponent is really going to make a fuss about it, I beat he would have rules lawyered me to death anyway.

Primed Shot.

This weekend will hopefully have me painting some Skaven and my Orks on bikes parade. If I find my spray adhesive I am making that paperhammer terminator my priority project!

Paperhammer!

I love quality paperhammer proxies. In the past I created a true to scale rhino chassis to proxy variants in friendly games. Someone in the facebook group I belong to posted this link:

http://newobmij.tumblr.com/post/12645812652/papercraft-terminators

Sorry there is no picture, but I know I am making an oversized paperhammer terminator this evening. Check out his other works (that Stormraven is amazing!).

On this topic, here is another great paperhammer source:

http://thegrimcheapness.blogspot.com/

It isn't updated frequently, but check out some of the old posts.

Death Skull Mega Nobs (WIP)

Other projects are keeping me busy until after this weekend, but these are the in progress additions of some armour to my Death Skulls.

Below are the 'Eavy Nobs I am making from the WHFB Black Orc set. The detail on the set is great, and it is nice to have some actual two-handed Big Choppas. I'm keep the changes to a minimum for now, as I really like how these guys look.

I'm also really excited to add a banner.

The next project is a group of Meganobs supporing a warboss in mega-armour. Again, the AoBR Warboss is put to good use. I've seen a lot Meganob conversions using Terminator bits, which is something I wanted to replicate. The Terminator body and legs were just too thin for my beefy Nobs. The face masks are some left over shield bits from the Black Orc box.

I am still debating if I should make any changes to make the Power fists Power Claws.