On the eve of battle...

You may have noticed a lull in proceedings around here for the last few weeks. 'Have you got fed up of Cygnar'? I hear you cry! Absolutely not. Trust me, there's plenty of that in the pipeline. However, I've had to squeeze in a little side project.

I sit here on the eve of a 40k tournament, quite unlike any other. That tournament is none other than 'The Dark Throne', a 1000 point bash in Manchester, as far as I'm aware the first 40k tournament run by the blogging group 'Corehammer'. These guys have been running their little corner of the internet for a little over a year. In their blog, they cover 2 subjects. The blog is a blend of the hardcore punk scene here and the UK, and reviews of their other hobby, wargaming.

You can check 'em out here:

www.corehammer.com

So, as you might know, I'm a big wargamer. I'm also into my punk music. Although, not quite the same level of hardcore as the corehammer crew, when the dark throne was announced, I knew I had to get tickets. They say it's going to be a social day of chatting music and wargames, there appears to be little to no emphasis on winning. In fact the rules pack genuinely includes to phrase 'Don't be that guy', in reference to the list building section. In other words, tomorrow should be exactly my kind of event!

So, i needed to throw together a 1000 point army, with no beard factor, get it built and painted in time to 'Not turn up with a tramp army' That's another rules pack quote. True, I could've used an old army, my horde of chaos guardsmen still hangs around my 40k tables, but where's the fun in that? So a new army, on a bit of a budget. But which one? I put this question to our club, and said, 'you guys come up with some ideas, I'll choose the best and run with it.'

This is how I've just finished my first Aurora Chapter army.

Who?

Aurora chapter are one of those chapters people have seen in every space marine codex for the last 5, but would never do an army of. We don't know much about them, they are Ultra Marines successors, and they have a high proportion of predators and land raiders. They're good at armored assaults. Thats about all I know.

Oh,

I also know, they're old school.

So I took corehammer's love of the old school(just check out their logo), and the old school values of doing one of those chapters you've known for years but never seen on the table, mashed them with the latest marine ideals, and what we got, is this pale green, chequer plated 1000 point right here. 

So army list was fairly easy. I couldn't justify a land raider in 1000 points, I don't want to be that guy, so predators. Predator destructors are actually really cheap. An armour 13 tank, with auto cannon, 2 heavy bolters and storm bolter on top rounds off at 100 points. 

I'll take 2. Laying down firepower in that quantity is a good thing in little points games. Sends people running. Turns out, marine tanks are also made to be airbrushed too, which is just good practice. Also allows for plenty of checks for old school vibes.  

Next up, 2 full tactical squads. I think if I'm taking a codex chapter, it's rude not to. I wanted to free hand chapter logos on the lot of 'em, but I just ran out of time. Originally, I'd planned to paint this whole army over 1 weekend, but over Easter I got struck down with a horrendous fever. That sent me scrambling for paint brushes up to about half on hour ago. 

So, troops on the ground, 1000 points, 20 solid power armoured marines. Next i need more support. You may notice I have very little anti tank so far. Step in a full squad of typhoon land speeders. A full squad, arriving from reserve, can delete armoured threats in salvo of rockets, on a good day. 3 multi meltas provides some ap1 fun too.

 

We now needed a leader. For some reason, I thought a character with a thunder hammer, though slow, would be cool. If he's gonna be slow, he needs good armour to make sure he gets chance to break heads. Finish him off with an old school back banner, and we'll see how he does.  

A few points left buys me a squad of scouts with sniper rifles. These guys always seem like an after thought, though I don't think they are. Camo cloaks can make 'em a right pain in little games, sometimes they just stick around, shooting stuff up. 

That rounds off the list. Does it work? I don't know. I've played 1 practice game. I wont get any more in before tomorrow. The main thing is a got it painted. Done and done.

So, what do I expect from tomorrow? Well, I'm aware that this day, much like a punk gig, is built on trust. You gotta trust your pit mates to pick you up when you fall down. You gotta trust your players to not break this game we know as 40k.

I don't play competitively, because I don't think the system is balanced. I save that for warmachine. 40k I just have a laugh. I'm aware that laugh could easily die in my throat when someone else's version for not being 'That guy' involves 'Look, I only took one helldrake this time'. Or 'I don't think a wraith knight is excessive in 1000 points, normally I take 3!'.

So tomorrow I place my trust in the other players and in corehammer, in that I shall have a good time, and I shall be more pleased bringing home the sportmanship award than anything else.

Lets try and keep the beer in check tonight too eh...? 

  

Stryker vs The World, Part one. The first games.

As mentioned a couple of posts back, my side project for the blog at the minute is trying to prove prime stryker still has the moves and can hold his own against the big boys. So last tuesday, I began, with two 25 point games, using only what I've got painted so far, so not much of a fair test(there's alot I'll change in this list).

How did I get on? Well the first game, was against a Syntherion convergence list. Dave, my club mate on the other side of the table is just learning the, he's probably played around ten games. He knows the system well enough by now.

So here we see Stryker's gang disrupting everything is sight. Arcane shield. on Thunderhead proves a tough nut to crack.  

Some hwat recklessly, stryker cockily charges a heavily damaged cipher, hoping to end it before it gets repaired, and managed to bounce off. Both forces started running out of options in the end, and sytherion ends up on the end of the Thunderhead's upper cut.

Result: Stryker Wins his first bout!

 
Time for one more before home time. Next up i line up against Mr Tom Wiggins' Skorne army. Strkyer, who was carried by stormsmiths disrupting all the vectors in the last game, is less confident.

Sure enough, me wanting to clear a full unit of nihilators leaves a bronzeback titan wide open. Foolishly, I try and stop the beast with long gunner combined attacks. It hyper aggressive moves closer, then with a good rush animus from his gladiator mate in the next turn smashes the ginger nut to the ground no problem.

Result: Domminar Rasheth Wins!

So overall a win and a loss. Its a reasonable start. Check back next time to find out how we're going this week!

   
 

Cygnar Battle Box. Journeyman Awaits!

I briefly mentioned in my last post, that our club is about to embark on running a journeyman league of warmachine and hordes. If you follow this blog, you'll know I've been restoring old second hand models to make a cygnar army. Not wanting to miss out, I had to get a cygnar starter box to join in the fun.

This is the only item I've paid full price for so far with my cygnar. everything else has been second hand. As in the last post I showed strkyer, I'm straight on with the show today with the warjacks.

First up, tiny charger. 4 points of joy! This battle box, for some reason the blue has come out quite nicely, both on the pictures and in real life. I wanted a proper 'cygnar blue', and I think i got it! 

Next up, a lancer. I've been playing with airbrush techniques recently, so I wanted both his shock shield and arc node to have a good old cygnaran blue glow. I think I need a bit brighter next time, but hey, hindsight is 20-20. 

 
Last up, the heavy hitter, Ironclad. I love the simplisty of this jack. Big hammer. What else do you need?

 

So strkyer, stands ready to defend his own status with his metal friends. Find out how I get on next time! 

Gonders. 

Stryker vs THE WORLD!!

Running along side my Cygnar restoration project, I have a side project to add into the mix. This will not be a painting or modeling job, however, so just for a minute every so often, it might skew Gonders' miniature painting.

The story begins...

So quite a while back, I can't remember how far back now, I had a conversation with some club mates about pStryker. I was trying to convince everyone that cygnar's, and perhaps the whole of warmachine's most overlooked 'caster shouldn't be so. They told me the normal arguments of 'but eHayley is better at everything', and 'He's a one trick pony with the most obvious trick of them all', and so on. It became a standing joke that I thought he had some worth.

Somewhere along the way, I vowed that one day Stryker and I would return at the head of an army of the royal blues and steam roll the world.

Unfortunaly for me, that day is coming.

It's time to put my money where my mouth is and show the world, and more importantly my club mates, that Stryker ain't done yet.

Stryker:- Ginger, overlooked and pissed off.

In two weeks time, we're running a journeyman league at the club. I intend to log progress, both me and ginge's rise to power, in little battle report form on here, to show everyone what we can do.

So what can possibly go wrong eh? 

Look out world, earthquake's acomin'! 

Gonders.

The great Cygnaran Restoration part 2.

The restoration continues!

Last time, I'd rebuilt my first 'jack, the thunderhead. I'd just started layering up the paints when I left you. Before we continue with this, however, I'll just turn back the clock a a little.

Before I started painting, I started using this old mark 1 ironclad as a test of my airbrushing skills.  I had this guy just floating around one of my many bits boxes.

As you can see, I'm going for proper Cygnar blue. though fairly unoriginal. I like it, it suits the models down to the ground. Though not my normal train of thought, with Warmachine, I'm more bothered about doing well on the table top than with the custom paint jobs. 

A bit more playing around with the old acrylics later and my test model is something like. The defining lines between the armour plates got a black wash, then a blue glaze to add some depth. 

Metals are unfinished here but will get a bright silver highlight later. 

I also stripped my chosen caster. Enemo. I just like how his army runs, I love jacks, and remember how annoying stormcallers are to play against! Coupled with Thunderhead, I hope to be on to a winner! 

Now we're back where I left off the other week. Time to get Mr T upto speed. Followed the same method as the test 'clad. but with extra glow! Never tried anything like this with my airbrush before, but I don't think I've done a bad job. the key is taking your time, and thinking about where that paint is going before you pull the trigger.

He obviously needs his base finishing to. He also needs his metal highlighting like the Ironclad from earlier. 

Next up to see the workshop bench, these two defenders! For the minute, its bath o' detol for these guys.

Till next time!

Gonders

The great Cygnaran Restoration, Part 1.

Right, it's an effort to keep the blog rolling. Damn straight.

So, my next project, one for myself this time, is to paint myself a new warmachine army. I um'd and arred between two of the biggest, Cygnar and Khador. I'm played Cryx, Menties, Trolls, and Ret before. I decided I want to paint some proper warjacks.

I also have been trying out airbrushing recently. This is why I first thought Khador. Big red armour to spray up. Got it. However, they don't play very jack heavy now do they? So I thought and thought, and made some lists.

Then I remembered, months ago I was talking to my club mates about how I think there is more mileage in two of warmachine's most underused 'casters, Captian Darius, and Commander Stryker. So antother £5 on a warroom deck, and I'm putting adverts up for wanted cygnar.

I'm going to prove to my club, I can get something out of these two! So a few trades later and I've got some 'Jacks coming in the post.

Now, I think my fovourite 'jack in warmachine has got to be the thunderhead. I remember when it came out in apotheosis, as a cryx player at the time I was so damned jealous. So I have my start. Unfortunatly, my second hand T'head arrived like this...

 So, a couple of days in the old detol for you, Mr T. You know how everyone hates 'The DJ pose'? I don't, I love it! However, T's previous owner didn't. His poor scratching arm was sheared on arrival.

Time for some new parts, Big man.

This tiny vice of mine is really old, but still comes in handy. 

We'll have you back together soon.

 Brass upgrades! I think he's going to like me.

Good as new! 

Wouldn't be Thunderhead without the gap filling, so I'm told. 

So I even started layering up with the airbrush. I'm still getting used to the idea. 

You can see my test Ironclad has gone and photobombed me here. More from him next time. 

So, hey, one man's rubbish is another's treasure eh? Give me a couple of weeks and we'll be powering across the board together!

Tharn Chieftain, Circle complete.

Well, I've finished the Circle commission, on time on target. The final model to be done was this here tharn ravager chieftain. He rounds out the contingent quite nicely i think.

I'm quite happy with my skin tones on this whole job. I think my highlights are fairly smooth through out. Ravagers are an odd one, in that the main colour on them is their skin, so i think its worth the extra effort. 

So the whole lot looks like this now. Once they had a coat of matt varnish to seal them, they're ready for their new home. Look out for these guys at smogcon this next weekend if you're going!