To4G painting... just getting started.

With the Tale of 4 Gamers league, the object is to field fully painted armies for the maximum league points. With a horde army, this means LOTS of models. I got started last night with my Skaven army, by painting 5 of my Plague Censer Bearers, and 10 of my Plague Monks (who still need some static grass). Again, it seems I am horrible with a camera, but I'll just blame it on the lense. Haha.

I have 10 more Plague Monks, and 5 more Plague Censer Bearers to paint before next Saturday (a week from tomorrow). Then the new Clan Rats will be released, and I will have 40 Clan Rats and 20 Slaves to paint in 3 weeks to complete my army for period 1.

Here is my army list for period 1:

Plague Priest: lvl 2, plague censer

20 Clan Rats: spear, shield, clawleader, standard, musician
20 Clan Rats: shield, clawleader, standard, musician
20 Slaves: musician

20 Plague Monks: musician, standard, bringer-of-the-word
10 Plague Censer Bearers

748

Idaeus, Captain of the 4th Company (Special Character)

Globalsmack posted up some character creation rules over at his blog: 40K Armageddon!

Using the rules, I created THE special character for my army of 4th Company Ultramarines: Captain Idaeus. Here he is, please leave your feedback.


Idaeus 265 points
Ultramarine Captain of the 4th Company, Master of the Fleet
(Chapter Master HQ slot)

WS-6 BS-5 S-4/6 T-4 W-3 I-5 A-3 LD-10 SV-2+/3+i

Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Iron Halo, Orbital Bombardment

Relic Blade, Storm Shield, Artificer Armor, Jump Pack

Eternal Warrior, Furious Charge*

(Skills marked with a “*” are usable by any squad the character is attached to.)

Basically I used the Chapter Master HQ choice rather than the regular Captain because Idaeus is the Master of the Fleet, giving him access to the Orbital Bombardment. I did not upgrade any other stats because I did not think he should be better in combat stat-wise than Marneus Calgar, but I did upgrade him with Eternal Warrior and Furious Charge.

Basically he is the same point cost as Marneus Calgar, without the great abilities, but he gets Furious Charge (for him and his unit) and fits better leading an army of my 4th Company Ultramarine Space Marines.

Here is the model I converted originally to represent Idaeus, even before Global posted his rules. He is painted more now, but not completed yet. I'll update when I finish him.


So what do you think?

Planetstrike League comes to an end.

I finished up my games against Tau in the final round of the Planetstrike League this Tuesday. The mission was Forlorn Hope, which basically was a capture the flag game that gave either army a possible turn 1 victory!

In my attacking game I was able to deep strike Marneus Calgar on turn 2, and capture the flag on turn 3 without any real opposition. In my defending game, my opponents Tau suits who were attempting to capture thier flag got assaulted by my 10 Assault Terminators and Marneus Calgar through an escape hatch. In the end, when the dust settled, the fearless, feel no pain buffed unit had one model with one wound left... the flag holder!!! So we split our games.

Overall I went 4-4 in the Planetstrike League. 2-0 vs Daemons, 1-1 vs Eldar, 0-2 v Orks, and 1-1 vs Tau. I had a great time. It was an excuse to field armies I would never otherwise be allowed to take (except in Apoc), create some amazing and difficult terrain setups, and play some scenarios new to everyone in the league on a fair setup of one game each attacker and defender. Mad props to Forbino of 40K Fight Club for putting the league together.

If you're in Michigan, or anywhere near another Chapter across the USA, check out 40K Fight Club for more info on league action.

Here are some photos from Tuesday night. A few league games, as well as a few regular Tuesday night pickup games.

Must Have Unit : Assault Terminators

What is your must have unit in your army? The one unit you always find a way to squeeze into your army, regardless of how well it does or how points effective it may or may not be?

For me, that is a unit of 5 Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields. For only 200 points you get 5 Terminators, giving you a 2+ armor save and 3+ invulnerable save. Then you give them a strength 8 power weapon that if wounds forces the wounded unit to go last next combat.

In smaller games they can deep strike and/or foot slog and be survivable, or transport them in a Land Raider in a bigger game (not factored into cost to worth ratio... you will probably have a Land Raider at higher levels because they are awesome as well).

They are the perfect retinue for your HQ slot, in terminator or not. I usually run a Terminator Librarian lately, but in large games or Planetstrike I have been known to run Marneus Calgar. I don't always run them with the HQ, but if anyone goes well to soak up armor saves and inlunerable saves off your HQ it is this unit.

Hard to kill, hard to survive against, less points than a Tactical Squad with a transport. Win.

Tale of 4 Gamers: Roster

We've got 4 players signed up and we will be starting up next month with our Tale of 4 Gamers league for Warhammer Fantasy Battles.


Rhellion - Skaven
daskrusher - Orcs and Goblins
Gargunki - Lizardmen
Gunslinger - High Elves

Good choices for army balance in the league, IMO, as we have none of the top 3 "power armies" (daemons, vampire counts, dark elves).

The purpose of the league is for the 4 participants to build and play a series of games with fully painted armies. In each of the 4 periods, we will submit an army list, then have 3 weeks to build and paint before playing games with that list.

Points will be tallied based on army performance as well as army completion and painting quality, judged by the other participants.

League Schedule:

2009-11-10 : 750 point roster due
2009-12-01 : Period 1 games start
2009-12-09 : 1250 point roster due
2009-12-29 : Period 2 games start
2010-01-06 : 1750 point roster due
2010-01-26 : Period 3 games start
2010-02-03 : 2250 point roster due
2010-02-23 : Period 4 games start


Point Structure:

10 Massacre! Victory
08 Solid Victory
06 Marginal Victory
04 Draw
01 Loss

10 Army completed on time
05 Period best painted (only current period additions judged)
10 Overall best army (during 4th period instead of Period best)
01 Painted / based movement trays (each period additions)
-1 Each already assembled unit (per period)


Any comments with experience running a Fantasy To4G?


Next To4G post will be Period 1 army selection and WIP!

Warhammer: Tale of 4 Gamers?

So I went yesterday and picked up Battle For Skull Pass, and I'm excited to start playing Fantasy for the first time in 8+ years. Just looking at the models has me excited to paint them. I traded away the Goblins and already now have about 1000-1200 points of Dwarfs.

 

 

While at Pandemonium for my Planetstrike game this week, daskrusher and Gargunki and I discussed trying a Tale of 4 Gamers style campain or league for WHFB. daskrusher is signed up as Orcs and Goblins, and I am signed up with my Skaven. So the Skaven are on hold for now in preparation of painting them on schedule for the league.


As far as setup, I am looking at 4 periods. Each period would be 3 weeks after lists are submitted until armies are to be painted and games are to be played. Probably 2 weeks for 3 games. The first period we will probably be able to knock out all of the first games in one night. For the 4 period point totals, I would like to do 500-1000-1500-2000 points. The first game will be small, but I think it will be the most manageable starting from scratch. Plus beyond the To4G we will have further room to expand into a tournament sized army. 

Right now I am looking towards a start date of Nov 10, which would make our first games Dec 1. But first we need to find 2 more players.

Skaven unearthed!

I guess unearthed sounds better than unleashed, since they are subterrainean creatures. So yeah, I finished painting my first Skaven miniature! I wasn't actually planning on doing any painting on them until after I picked up my Clan Rats, but this guy was begging to be painted, and I'm hoping he sets the tone for the rest of my army.

Sorry about the lighting. I don't exactly have a studio here. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to get some better pictures in more natural light.That or maybe I need tips on how to actually take digital photographs.

Skaven Plague Priest

Blog vs Blog battle report

Here it is, a couple days late. This Saturday Gargunki and I had a blog vs blog battle report to take a break from the Planetstrike League. He was so into Planetstrike mode, that he tried to play 3 HQ choices! Haha. The error was quickly corrected after deployment, and we all had a laugh. Then we found Globalsmack's die that had mysteriously disappeared the previous game. Anyways! On to the game...

Necrons vs Ultramarines ... Red vs Blue

Pregame

I chose to deploy first, and go first. This game I decided to try a full drop pod/deep strike army for the first time. I did have 1 unit of Scout Bikers, but they would be infiltrating. Gargunki set up his Necrons (plus one Destroyer Lord before removing it...) and I infiltrated and scout moved my bikes before The Deciever re-deployed the unit closest to the bikers.

Turn 1

I dropped my first 3 pods, and forced one unit of Necrons to break. Unfortunately my Sternguard were not ont he table side near my locator beacon, and scattered out of effective reach.

Then theNecrons took out a couple of the Sternguard, blew an Ironclad arm in shooting, and then The Deciever demolished him in assault. My first turn drop Dread was poorly placed looking back, especially when he didn't blow anything with his melta and 2 hkm's first turn.

Turn 2

Fairly uneventful for me. I dropped in my Assault Terminators. This turn was the actual turn we figured out the Destroyer Lord wasn't supposed to be in the game.

The Necrons unleashed the fury onto the Assault Terminators. Gargunki really didn't want them hanging around.

Turn 3

My Asault Squad deep strikes onto the board, and breaks the Destroyer Squad with the help of a Drop Pod shooting. In asault, I rolled snake eyes on the saves of my remaining 2 Assault Terminator armor saves! Ouch.

The C'Tan in combat with my hopefully scoring Space Marine Tactical Squad on the opposite table corner only kils one marine. All other combats are ties or otherwise uneventful.

Turn 4

Shooting and Assault phase kills his Necron Lord and the unit he is with. Other combats are pushes again.

The Lord gets back up to his WWBB roll, and teleports out of combat. My Assault Squad falls back to shooting, and my lone Librarian makes 2 huge invulnerable saves to Heavy Destroyers.

Turn 5

Not much in the way of shooting, and we have assaults with my Captain, Librarian, and Assault Squad.

The Necrons teleport out of combat to save themselves, and leave my characters in the open to be shot up. The Librarian is tough, but finally dies, and my Captain makes all of his saves. The C'Tan finally destroys the Marine squad, and all other combats are fairly lame.

Turn 6

My Captain kills two Heavy Destroyers in close combat. Revenge for my Librarian! More minor casualties and no combat resolutions.

The Destroyers get ported and saved with WWBB, and the 3 Gauss Cannons fail kill the Captain! But he finally falls to 2 more units forced to shoot at him. Otherwise all the combats push again, and we are left with one objective contested, and another uncontrolled. The game ends in a draw.

I think I would have done much better with a traditional army for my playstyle. But overall, this was meant to be a fun game to try out a drop pod army, and it turned out to be a good one.

Planetstrike Terrain Project

I finally got some pictures of the terrain I've been building, painting, and using for the Planetstrike League. The minimum for the league is 1 Bastion and 1 Aegis Defense Line of your own for each game, in addition of the plethora of club terrain found at Pandemonium. So far many people have brought their own terrain, and combined with the club and store terrain have put together some great looking battlefields (see previous Planetstrike posts).

First up are my finished bastions. I have 2 bastions and 4 aegis defense lines fully painted, which also gives me 4 autocannon interceptor guns, and 2 lascannon interceptor guns.

I've also been using some craters I bought at Pandemonium, and the Games Workshop Blast Scape set of vac-form terrain. I went to Home Depot and bought some hard board and stenciled on the outlines of the terrain pieces. I then cut them out and mounted the terrain to the hard board with epoxy. The plan is to base the edges, and then prime and paint in a similar scheme as my Ultramarine's bases. So far it has worked great, and while they are more bulky to transport, they are a much higher quality to use on the tabletop.

Also, I changed the name of the blog! Since it has become more of a hobby blog than an Ultramarines WIP diary, I've renamed the blog 'Rhellion's Tabletop' from the former name '4th Company'. It also helps that I found another blog already named 4th Company. I didn't want to rain on his parade. Haha.