Emperors Children and some more updates

Time for another quick update. I have a lot of uni work on at the moment as well as it being the height of the Dance season and you know all the Christmas stuff you have to do before the day actually comes round. Anyway I have some bits for you 

I'm still here!

Sorry I've been gone for so long. There is a lot of work to do at university at the moment as well as holding a part time job, being on a committee and having time for dance practise. As such very little hobby has been done since armies on parade. I have a couple of updates and a new list to show you.

Army Showcase Salamanders

Today we have another army in the infrequent army showcase section of this blog. Today we have some Salamanders courtesy of my younger brother. I hope you enjoy them. 

Armies on Parade

Sorry for the long gap between posts at the moment. There is a lot of uni work to do so I have little time for mu hobby. So yesturday was the armies on parade event at Games Workshops across the country. Here are the photos of my entry of the day as well as those from my local store and a couple of others that popped up on my twitter throughout the day

The Ordo Reductor are here

So I got some bits and pieces in the post over the last couple of days so I thought I would do an update. Find below my thoughts on what is going on with my next army.

Next Project

So I have nearly finished my armies on parade board (see below) and need a new project. I need a Wolf Lord to lead my army, so that's what I will do (along side my jetbikes and Tyhpon of course...).

Armies on Parade and Haul

So this week has been a good week for the hobby, my latest order from Forge world arrived and more progress has been done on the board.

Armies on Parade

First things first I apologies for not getting any proper updates out more recently. Uni has started back up so I've had to sort life out again, no time for the constant hobbying that was the summer holidays. The other big project that I have been working on is my armies on parade board.

Some Finished Models

So for the first time in a long while I have managed to finish some painting. Both my Solitaire for my stores birthday and five wolves for my armies on parade board. I might go back and do some more work to them, but for the purposes of today they are done.

More work for armies on parade

So today's update is just a short one looking at some bits and pieces of what I am doing

Solitaire Update

So this a quick post with some photos of my solitaire. Just need to do the gems and horns on the model and then I can move on to his base. Any way that's enough of me today, here are some pictures enjoy.

Armies on Parade and Sicaran

So two updates today, armies on parade and sicaran.

Current projects

So there is not much progress this week, apart from a lone harlequin that is not related to any major project. So a quick break down of the projects today, these being space wolves, emperors children, mechanicum, vampire counts and this harlequin I've mentioned

I'm back?

So today is just a short post to say that I haven't died/vanished off the face of the earth. There has been some personal stuff going on as well as dissertation coding which has lead to very little hobby time in the last week and a half. I have managed to complete building ten grave guard for Age of Sigmar and will be basing and building the next three thallax for the unit posted on here previously. Any way my plan is to have some proper updates for you in the next couple of days and weeks and both my twitter and this blog have some milestones coming up soon so keep your eyes and ears peeled for that as well.

Until next time 

Philip

New toys

So again today will just be a short one as I haven't really got very much 30k hobbying done this week, although I have done some. On Monday I got some new goodies in the post. Firstly another three thallax with a photon thruster. Hopefully I'll get this built and painted in the next couple of weeks.

Titan Princeps/Magos

So this is a quick one today. Just thought I'd put up some photos of my limited edition reaver titan princeps that I finished on Friday. Some of you will have seen him on twitter so apologies for the multiple posts.

New Forge World Site

So I don't normally post about this sort of thing, but I thought I would give my views on it and see what people think and also the benefits/downsides to it are.

So here is the new look for any of you haven't seen it yet. They have made it like the actually GW website. So there are some pros to this :

• Mobile - I think this is the biggest improvement to the website, it is so much easier to navigate
• We're getting 360 views on some models so you can see 
• The white out of weapons on the first image so you can see what you can comes in the set, like the old dreadnought arm shots
• Age of Sigmar stuff has rules for it, they don't look to bad actually

Now my biggest gripe and I think the only major problem with the website :
      

THE NAVIGATION! - it is so difficult to find what you want, especially if it is generic. Cutting down the option to what you want is just time consuming. It isn't difficult per-say, it's just a little more difficult to do so.

So the other big thing is the special edition Praetor. I personally like the model, apart from the head (which seems to be everyones biggest gripe). It's nice to get a complete power armoured Praetor that you can then use as a legion centurion rules wise or convert to whatever you want. Now I think they missed a trick here. Very few of the characters have fancy helmets, so personally I think that they should have done a helmeted version. Well that's what I would have liked to see. 

Special edition model 

Any way that is all I have to say on the matter. What do you guys think?

Philip

The Ordo Reductor or where I want to take my army

So I have decided to think through my force idea, part of this is based on speculation of what I have heard from different people that were at the open day and chatted to Alan Blithe about the new red Mechanicum book.

Starting a Horus Heresy Army: Lords of War

Hi guys it's Tom here.

Today I will discuss how lord of war choices are made in a heresy game and a rundown of the lord of war choices in the crusade army list and their strength and weaknesses.

A few disclaimers first. I will not be talking about primarchs in this article, as that will need a whole article in itself to properly analyse. Also, I will be talking about units that are specifically in the crusade army list book, and not superheavy vehicles that have been introduced after the book's release (such as the stormbird and knights).

To begin, I will outline how lord of war choices work in the Forge World Horus Heresy format.

If you play a battle in the age of darkness you need to follow a 25% rule for lord of war choices. That is that a lord of war choice cannot be more than 25% of your total points. Additionally, you cannot take a lord of war choice in games less than 2000 points. For example in a 2000 points game, you can have a lord of war choice up to 500 points.

There is an optional Leviathan force organisational chart that allows you to take additional lord of war choices, and can represent any percentage of your force, although this organisational chart has different drawbacks and restrictions to take into account. 

Another way to add more superheavy awesomeness to your force is to agree with your opponent that you are playing an unbound army as per the 40k 7th edition rulebook. This allows you to take whatever you want, but is a rather contentious issue with some players as some may think heresy is not balanced for unbound. Therefore seeking approval from an opponent is key.

Now I will discuss the various lord of war choices that are listed in the crusade army list.

·       

             Legion Stormblade:

Ø  Pro's- 2 different firing modes which adds versatility. Large blast area

Ø  Con's- Needs armoured ceramite or will be susceptible to meltas in drop pods

Ø  Summary- Overall good tank which in my opinion is worth its points. Plus who doesn't like a titan scale plasma cannon on a tank?

·         Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer:

Ø  Pro's- Multiple shots at str 10 if you roll well for the amount of shots it has. Shock pulse is great against other superheavies to stop their blast weapons for a turn if you penetrate it.

Ø  Con's- Feedback can be annoying as you could lose a hull point for not penetrating or wounding an enemy unit

Ø  Summary- Compared to the sicaran venator and the new laser destroyer vindicator this tank is not up to standard for its points. Its saving grave is that it's a superheavy and so can keep firing until all its hull points are gone.

·         Typhon Heavy Siege Tank:

Ø  Pro's- Ignores cover strength 10 is awesome! Cheap for the fire output it has

Ø  Con's- short range if you need to reposition and move the tank

Ø  Summary- One of the best lord of wars in the list. Having ignores cover with such high strength and low AP means that you will eradicate most things under the massive blast you place. Great for messing with a gun-line sat in cover

·         Legion Falchion:

Ø  Pro's- Strength D can be useful for targeting an important enemy unit, especially other superheavies

Ø  Con's- Only 1 shot

Ø  Summary- With only 1 shot the tank will struggle to get its points back unless you roll well on the D table and manage to hit with some shots

·         Malcador Assault Tank:

Ø  Pro's- Cheap and is a fast vehicle

Ø  Con's- Relatively low armour and hull points

Ø  Summary- Doesn't really fill an integral function in a heresy list. You can get more firepower for less points

·         Legion Fellblade:

Ø  Pro's- All rounder and can take on multiple enemy units. Lots of hull points. Good range on guns

Ø  Con's- Anti-armour round is only 3 inch blast

Ø  Summary- A versatile and resilient tank that can take on a range of targets. A solid choice.

·         Legion Glaive:

Ø  Pro's- Beam weapon that ignores cover and has haywire

Ø  Con's- Effectiveness dependant on enemy deployment and targets in range. Has to be on the frontline so you don't hit your own units with the beam which can lead to dangerous positions

Ø  Summary- A versatile main weapon that has the potential to destroy a lot of models, but a cleaver opponent will deploy so that you will not get the most out of the beam range. On the plus side, you can use it to alter the opponent's plans, and to potentially deploy in areas they don't want to.

·         Thunderhawk Gunship:

Ø  Pro's- Big transport capacity, including units that otherwise cannot be transported such as bikes

Ø  Con's- Has to come in on reserves, so might not have enough time on the board to be effective. Susceptible to interceptor fire, which is common in heresy armies. Expensive

Ø  Summary- You will have a lot of points of your army in reserves, so you reliant on it coming in turn 2/3 so that occupant can charge out of it and get their points back

·         Thunderhawk Transporter:

Ø  Pro's- Transports units that otherwise wouldn't be able to be transported such as land raiders

Ø  Con's- Needs to come on from reserves. Susceptible to interceptor fire, which is common in heresy armies

Ø  Summary- You will have a lot of points of your army in reserves, so you reliant on it coming in turn 2/3 for it to be effective points back.

Please let me know if you would like me to go into more detail about any of the units I have discussed in this article, or if you want me to cover a superheavy that's missing from this list.

Thank you very much for reading!

Tom

Thallax Showcase

So some of you will already have seen numerous photos of my thallax but for those of you who haven't, or even those of you who have and want some more close ups I have decided to put up some more photos of them 

Mechanicum

"The loyalist faction was much smaller than had been guessed at by those on Terra. The loyalist forces on Mars found themselves to be massively outnumbered. In addition to the greater proportion of  tech-priests, the traitors could also upon the services of seven Titan legions. Within hours of securing the munitions factories, the loyalists were being pressed back. It was clear that they could not win this battle"

The next two weeks

Hello all, just a quick post today. Unfortunately I have had no time to do much hobbying this week do to life conspiring against me, and that fact that I am of on holiday tomorrow so packing needed to get done. I will be away for the next week and a half, but you should still get your weekly fix of resin from here (thanks to the magic of the internet). There will definalty be a post this Thursday and next Monday (hope you like mechanicum) and possibly a couple of other so keep your eyes peeled.

Ok this is the English sea side and I won't be in the UK though but you get the idea

Have a good week guys and I'll see you all in the near future, happy hobbying

Philip

Emperors Children

"Captain Saul Tarvitz, last loyal officer of the Emperor's Children, surveyed the grim tableau before him. He stood amidst the ruins of  a once magnificent city. It's name had died with those who had built and lived within its fabulous palaces and marbled halls. Now it was little more than a heap of rubble"

Updates - Changes and Distraction

So some things are going to be changing on here for a while. Basically I have got a little bored of my Space Wolves. I've been painting space wolves since they were re-released for 40K in 2009 and I now want a little change, a) to paint something different and b) to push my painting skills further.

Death Guard Legion Glaive Built

Hi guys,

One of the highlights of going to the Forge World Open Day, along with the awesome displays and meeting the designers, was getting myself the mighty Legion Glaive for my growing Death Guard army.

They packaged all the large kits in cardboard boxes at the event, as in the past they would just give you all the parts in a plastic bag. It shows they are placing more importance on packaging and product quality which is good to see.

Space Wolves Showcase

Finally the Sons of Russ get their own showcase! I have got enough squads finished now that I can field a legal army with no proxies, so I thought it was time to showcase them to all of you. There really won't be very much talking in this blog as it's mainly a showcase.

A couple of thoughts on play

So I recently had a couple of games with my force against another 30k army (in this case Sons of Horus) and I thought that I would write down some thoughts on how the game went and how some of the units performed. 

Forge World Open Day

So a lot of you Forge World junkies will know that it was the open day at warhammer world yesterday, and I was lucky enough to attend. Now I know there are plenty of blogs out there with loads more content than what I will show (e.g. Battle Bunnies) but I just want to give my thoughts on some bits and pieces.

Emperors Children Showcase

By Russ's beard! These other legions are just taking over! This week we have a beautiful Emperors Children force painted by Søren Westborg. I found these posted on the Horus Heresy facebook page (go and join if you haven't already) and decided that these must be showcased. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did

Sicaran in progress

So I've finally got round to starting work on the Sicaran. So it's a beautiful kit and I will defiantly have to get a venator at some point in the near future. There is lots of detail on the kit and plenty of large spaces for detail work. Anyway here are some photos. So these are a collection of WIPs of what I have done so far. I have yet to finish the armour, but if I do I'll be taking it to the Forge World open day. So what do you think so far?

Starting a Horus Heresy Army: Mechanicum

Hi all, today I am going to discuss how to start a 30k Mechanicum army. I will not be covering Games Workshop's 40k Adeptus Mechanicus, just the rules provided by Forge World for the pre heresy range.

I will only be covering the HQ and troops options today to give a basic understanding of some of the units you can take to start an army.

Mechanicum are a fantastic army to collect, they are tough, elite robots who's only function is to destroy the enemy. Mechanicum units cost a lot of points, but are durable and can unleash a scary amount of firepower, especially at close/medium range.

Finished Centurion

So very little to show for this week, I didn't get back to my home till Friday evening and then had this that and the other to sort out over the weekend, such is the way of being an adult (I'm sure some of you can sympathise with this). Any way I have managed to get the first HQ I bought painted up today so I'm happy about that. I'm not sure what he will be used for in my army as of yet, so he may get relegated to the command squad when I need a cheap character to lead a smaller army. So onto the pictures.

So I'm really happy with this weapon, finally changed the way I paint power weapons and have no interest in going back

This back pack is from the new space wolves upgrade kit

I also have a couple of things in the works, waiting for the weather to clear so that I can do some spraying, have ordered some magnets so that I can do the sponsons on the Sicaran and have ordered a scimitar jet bike so I can get started on that aspect of my army. 

Well that's it for today.

Philip

A quick update

So as some of you may have noticed there was no new post this week. This is due a to a large family event and a field course that I have only just returned from. A good time was had but it meant that no hobbying has been completed this week. Hopefully we'll be back on schedule next week, and with that I'll leave you with some pictures of what the view from the office was during the field course...

My view of the English coast, benefits of going on scientific cruise for three days

TS Belem

Why Small Armies are Important

In the the world of 30k where 1500-2000pts are the the norm when it comes to game sizes, smaller games are left to the side. Today I'm going to have a look at why I think smaller games can be as important as the larger games

Night Lords Showcase

Ave Dominus Nox!

What is this you ask, the blog has been infiltrated by traitors! Well no fear my fellow loyalist this is just a new semi-regular feature looking at some of the best 30k armies that I have found on my rounds of different forums, blogs and facebook. 

Sevatar, First Captain of the Night Lords

More Completed Space Wolves

So I have spent the last two days finishing of a couple of squads for my army. It is now a completely legal painted force! I am really happy about this, I don't normally get armies finished (well it's not finished there is still plenty more to add). Anyway enough of the rambling here are some photos.

Painting Space Wolf Armour

 So I've had comments about how I paint the armour on my space wolves, and it's really rather simple (I basically use the GW method!). When I started painting, back in 2004 or so I wouldn't dream of painting anything like GW official but that has changed with time. I picked up this painting style when they first released the new range of paints. Any way onto the painting.

New Space Wolves sprue

So I decided to delve back into the realm of 40k today (I know heresy right!). Any way for those of you that didn't know GW released a new upgrade set of the space wolves (pre-orders went up today) and they have plenty of fancy new parts on them, some of which I thought would work really well on a Praetor. 

Finally a direction for my Space Wolves!

For a long time I haven't really had a direction for my Space Wolves , I have bits and pieces and have been trying to get a cohesive force together but nothing that clicked. But that has all changed now and I am happy for that. Below I'm going to outline my plan for the army and where I'm going to take it and what I'm going to buy next (the most important of all questions right?)

Space Wolves Apothecary

So a quick update for this week (exams do suck don't they). This is just a quick showcase of my Space Wolves apothecary. So before you all start ranting and raving at me, yes I know that Space Wolves have wolf priests, however this is during the Heresy and we have rules for apothecaries and damm they are useful so I thought I'd make one anyway. My reasoning is that a) you would need more medics than the wolf priests code provide and b) wolf priests need some sort of training right? So now that I have my excuses out of the way I present to you Unni Skulason.

I'm not as happy with this power sword as I was with the ones on my terminators, going to have to spend more time on the next one.

Until next week

Philip

Project Updates

So I think it's time for some updates, it's exam period which of course means more hobbying gets done as procrastination becomes evermore important, right? Any way here are a collection of some of the stuff that has been built and others that are having a change.

Castellax Inbound!

Posing 

For this Thursday I have decided to take a leaf from GW and focus on the Mechanicum. 

Basing Tutorial

So I've had a couple of people ask me how I both base and paint my models so I thought rather than repeating myself over and over I would do a couple of Tutorials. The first of these will be a basing tutorial, with the second being a painting tutorial (which may cover more than one post depending on how many photos I take).

Starting a Horus Heresy Army: HQ and Troops

Hi guys, I will give a brief overview of some of the units that you can take when starting a Horus Heresy army. Only HQ and troops will be covered here, so if you want me to create a more in-depth analysis of a specific unit please let me know in the comments.

Shiny Resin

That's right, my order arrived 

As always it is great when new material arrives, it means time to build more and add more to your army (after finishing the current painting pile...)

Cataphractii Terminators

"The building collapsed, crashing down on top of them, yet as the dust cleared shadows emerged from the building. Nothing would stop their advance"

 

 

Command squad and Master of Signals

Command Squad

So my first work in progress. I present you with my command squad. There are three of these guys, one with a sword and bolt pistol, one with an axe and bolt pistol and then my Banner bearer has a lightning claw. I'm hoping to expand the squad at some point but at the moment I have the minimum for a squad. Now some pictures and explinations

Welcoming new friends

A Helping Hand

So I have decided that it would be quite nice to drag some friends into this blog to give me a little hand (many hands make light work and all that jazz). This means that the the blog is going to move away from pure Space Wolves although they will still have a heavy influence on the blog. The idea for the schedule at the moment is that there will be updates from me on a Monday with space wolfy goodness and on Thursdays there will be posts from one of the others. So without further ado, I shall let the new guys introduce themselves.

The Horns of War Sound

The Fang : John Blanche

 

The Fang

"At the centre of the vast plateau of the northern polar continent of Asaheim there is a range of mountains whose peaks are said to rise above the atmosphere. The tallest of all lies in the very middle of the range, dwarfing its fellows and rising like a single gnarled tooth above those that surround it. This peak, and the Chapter fortress that is built upon and within it, is The Fang."

From the furthest corners of the galaxy do they come, their mighty star vessels arrive at Valgard. Messengers walk through torch lit corridors hewn from the mountain itself, a message for a brother. In the hall of the Annulus the Wolf King sits with his lords. 

"Brothers, let us drink and feast this eve, for we are at peace. Yet there are those that wish for war. And as they for war then so they shall receive their war. Ready yourselves and your companies for tomorrow we shall ply the stars and join my brothers.

The Wolves of Fenris shall war once more."

As the horns have summoned them from across the stars so the Wolves arm for war, for they shall hunt again.

"FOR RUSS AND THE ALL FATHER"

Completed Squads

So I thought that I'd show you what I squads that I have actually completed in my collection. Compared to what I own and what's on my painting table there is very little that is actually painted. Most of what I own is however base coated, as I am not willing to play with unpainted models, but I get to certain point with the models and the armour becomes very time consuming at that point so it all sort of slows down a little bit. Any way without further ado I present my fully painted models.

Updates: When to expect them

So this is more of a service announcement than actual hobby related goodness. After looking at the stats and see get that there has been quite a few hit's on here already I'm going to try and do a regular release schedule on the blog. I will attempt to release content every Monday at 9am GMT. I hope this works and will keep you updated in the future if this changes.

Anyway happy hunting

Philip

Image from : http://ironsleet.com/tag/vlka-fenryka/  seriously go check the iron sleet guys out

Welcome to the Aett

Welcome brothers and sisters to this the halls of the Space Wolves.  In all seriousness welcome. If you are reading this then this is my first attempt at anything like this. I am planning on brining you semi regular updates on my hobby progress from the the 31st millennium. 

The artwork of Prospero Burns. Image: Black Library